‘Disaster waiting to happen’: residents warned of road years before 4-year-old died

Evelyn Childers, a longtime resident of the Colonial Square Homes apartment complex, has wanted to move into the 4-bedroom apartment at the edge of the cul-de-sac below Northeast Parvin Road home for some time, but admits, for reasons of safety, that she likely never will.

“I remember going inside the apartment and looking out the window,” Childers says “the roadway was right at the back door.”

Directly outside, a hill slopes about 20 feet up into a winding, two-lane patch of Parvin Road, one of the busiest roads in the Northland. “I thought if a car comes down from there, it’s going to come right into my home,” Childers says. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

That disaster happened on Monday, when a vehicle carrying a 4-year-old girl spiraled off of the Parvin roadway and down the hill, ricocheting off multiple trees before crashing at the hill’s base and killing the young girl.

The driver of the vehicle, a 53-year-old man, had tried to pass another vehicle on the road before losing control.

“I feel so bad about it,” Childers says. “If only they had taken heed of what I was asking for and followed through with it. I don’t think that accident would have been as bad as it was.”

Childers said she spent years petitioning Kansas City’s Public Improvements Advisory Committee (PIAC) for funds to make the roadway safer. Her requests, she said, were to add an additional turning lane and to remove the trees and shrubbery that sometimes obscure the view of drivers.

“Who knows, maybe if there was another lane, yesterday’s accident never happens.”

PIAC is a city government committee tasked with soliciting input and recommendations from Kansas City residents on aspects of citywide and sometimes neighborhood portions of the capital budget.

PIAC records show that at least four requests dating back to 2014 were made to the committee for funding so that additional lanes could be installed on the stretch of road where Monday’s accident occurred.

The petitions were made on behalf of the “Colonial Square Towhomes, Inc.”

Each of the requests were rejected.

A chairwoman of PIAC, Deb Hermann, said she is familar with that stretch of Parvin. She drives it three to five times a week and she’s seen the dangers firsthand.

“Parvin generally is a road that has a lot of complaints,” Hermann said. “But there’s only so many dollars.”

Hermann is also CEO of the Northland Neighborhoods Inc. neighborhood association, which represents the Colonial Square apartments. She said the city is constantly having discussions about how to improve Parvin Road, but an ever-growing list of infrastructural challenges, coupled with limited resources, makes addressing all problems a challenge.

“I could add how pedestrians are forced to walk in the street on the shoulder,” she said. “That’s not safe. That’s another issue.”

The next, most feasible step, Hermann said, is to work with traffic engineers and PIAC to find a temporary fix.

“I know a long term fix will probably be too expensive. But whatever we do, it needs to be a priority.”

This story was originally published January 8, 2019 at 9:52 PM.