By Matthew Sockol
Staff Writer
MILLSTONE – As residents move through the summer, members of the Township Committee are seeking measures to increase safety on Millstone Township’s roads.
“You literally take your life in your hands when you get on just about any road,” Committeewoman Nancy Grbelja said during the governing body’s July 6 meeting.
Grbelja informed her fellow committee members that she posted a list of locations she considers to be dangerous for drivers on an Internet blog. She said one such location is the intersection of Agress Road and Route 571 (Rising Sun Tavern Road).
Grbelja said it is difficult for a driver to turn left from Agress Road onto Route 571. A hill on Route 571 that is near the intersection is an obstruction and could result in a vehicle turning left onto the county road from Agress Road being broadsided, she said.
Concerns about safety on Millstone’s roads were previously discussed at a May 4 meeting.
At that time, Grbelja said she is frequently tailgated when she is driving at about 6 a.m. Committeeman Fiore Masci said he was almost hit by a car that entered his lane of travel on Millstone Road, Township Administrator Maria Dellasala said vehicles have passed her where there is a double yellow line on Stagecoach Road, and Mayor Bob Kinsey said he was nearly involved in a head-on collision at the intersection of Charleston Springs Road and Route 524 (Stagecoach Road) when a passing vehicle entered his lane.
At the July 6 meeting, Committeeman Gary Dorfman said he saw the driver of a pickup truck that was towing a horse trailer pass a minivan on Sweetmans Lane between Somers Court and Millstone Road.
Dorfman described the move as one that lacked clearance, saying, “If somebody pulled out, there was no chance for that vehicle to stop.”
Grbelja discussed vehicles on Backbone Hill Road that she said travel at 70 mph and trucks transporting materials that she said travel between 50 and 60 mph.
As a measure to bring drivers’ attention to the speed at which they are traveling, Masci suggested purchasing radar speed signs.
“They are pretty effective,” he said. “They make you conscious (of your speed) and you slow down.”
Grbelja said the township had a radar speed sign, but its lights no longer work.
According to Kinsey, the sign was struck by a vehicle.
Committee members spoke favorably of obtaining radar speed signs for the township.
“They are not overly expensive,” Kinsey said. “I would not mind having two, three, four (or) five in locations that are habitual problem sites and one or two that are maybe more portable.”
“We recognize this is an issue we want better resolved,” Dorfman said. “There are a couple of approaches we are doing. We are asking the police for greater enforcement presence, which I think we are seeing, we are trying to raise public consciousness, and then we will look at other innovations like the possibility of the notification speed process.”
Millstone Township does not have its own police force to patrol the community. The New Jersey State Police provides coverage to the municipality.