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Calls for safety changes following violent crash in Lake Worth Beach

A BMW flipped over outside the Lakeside Point Gardens Apartments in Lake Worth Beach on March 1, 2021.jpg
Posted at 2:37 PM, Mar 03, 2021
and last updated 2021-03-03 18:20:38-05

LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — There are renewed calls to increase safety on a busy stretch of road in Lake Worth Beach.

It comes after a violent crash this week left a car on its side against an apartment building.

"It's a speedway!" said neighbor Robert Pickard.

As cars pass down Lake Osbourne Drive in Lake Worth Beach, there are pieces of a bumper, mirror, broken taillights, and pieces of plastic nestled in the grass outside the Lakeside Point Gardens Apartments.

"I looked at the car and I said I don't know how he survived," said neighbor Lynn Anderson.

"If those trees weren't there they would have been in Pat's apartment," Pickard said.

Neighbors tell WPTV that Monday night, a BMW flipped over, taking out several palm trees before landing on its side against the building's stairwell.

Luckily, the driver survived.

"At night you have motorcycles coming from under the 6th Avenue bridge doing over 100 mph," Pickard said.

It's unclear if speed was a factor in this latest crash. The speed limit is 30 mph, and neighbors are petitioning the county for a traffic calming study.

"I think what we need is the speed bumps out here and that would keep everybody at the 30 mph zone," Pickard said.

The Palm Beach County Traffic Division tells WPTV it's now studying this area again, looking at traffic volume, and speed bumps will be considered if 50% of all cars passing by are speeding.

Anderson is now hoping something is done after what she says are too many close calls on Lake Osbourne Drive.

"I'm very careful when I walk across it now, I look both ways at least three time because they come so fast that all of a sudden a car is on top of you," Anderson said.

The county studied this area in the past and said it didn't meet the requirement for speed bumps.

But tubes have been placed over the road for a new study, and we're told the county will make its determination in about a week.