RESIDENTS FEAR FOR SAFETY DRIVING ROUGH ROADS IN NEWBERN
“These potholes are ridiculous.”
“It’s pathetic. It really is pathetic.”
“I’ve been over here seven years and this road gets worse and worse.”
Those are just a few of the responses we got from people driving down County Road 39 in Newbern.
Many of the potholes on County Road 39 are as deep as 12 inches from the road’s surface, causing people to have to drive off the main roadway into this ditch area just to pass them.
Residents told WVUA 23 news reporter Chelsea Barton that the conditions are ruining their vehicles and in turn ,impacting them financially.
“I tore my bumper up on my car. I tore tires up,” Whitney Lewis exclaimed.
“The roads are terrible. A guy who was driving on the road Friday who didn’t know the road. When he hit the road, fire came out from under his car,” Marshe Lewis said.
“Besides budgeting for household, lights, water, whatever, you also have to take in accountability for you vehicles, Newbern native Muhammah Faiz told WVUA 23. “That’s tires, that’s alignment….most of the people here barely live over the income level and that’s adding more strain to us on a monthly basis,” he said.
More importantly, residents feel the rough roads are jeopardizing their safety.
“I have 3 kids that ride the school bus and it’s very dangerous,” Lewis exclaimed. “All the roads are just horrible.”
“When the ambulance has to come out, it takes thema lot longer to dodge these potholes,” Faiz told WVUA 23. “And our community is over half elderly, so when the ambulance needs to come out, it could be a matter of death within moments,” he said sadly.
Hale County Commissioner Donald Anderson represents this area.
He met Chelsea on the road to walk the rough areas. He promises his constituents help is coming.
“Hopefully in the next day or so we can get some weather,” Anderson said. “We are going to alleviate it so they can get in and out during the winter, but hopefully by the spring we will have this road done. All I can say is just be a little bit patient with us. It will be done.”
