Residents say stretch of Drahner Road in Oxford is unsafe due to disrepair

Neighbors worried about possible serious crash on rough stretch of road

OXFORD, Mich. – The narrow and dusty Drahner Road is in the backwoods of Oxford, and residents said it's hardly passable.

The road doesn’t last long until it goes from paved to dirt.

The long haul goes deep into the Oxford neighborhood.

“About a mile and half, two miles, Larry," resident Ray Chess told Local 4's Larry Spruill. "I never measured it, but about a mile to two miles."

Chess invited Local 4 to experience the dirt road, and within a matter of minutes, we felt each bump, after bump, after bump.

“Here I am in a full-sized Escalade and I’m doing 3 miles per hour,” Chess said.

Chess said Drahner is the road less traveled, and over the last 15 years, he figured out a way to get around, sort of.

“This is just typically what you do," Chess said. "You just kind of go from side to side, and what you also have to do is you have to watch in front of you if you go in a turn and you’re on the wrong side of the street."

Driving down the road can be difficult for neighbors and their cars, but residents said having the road fixed is bigger than that.

“When there’s safety issues and you can’t get emergency road vehicles back here, whether it’s fire or ambulance, that’s when I think it’s a bridge too far,” Chess said.

We reached out to the Oakland County Road Commission and a spokesperson said there is a long list of road projects. As of now, Drahner Road is not on that list due to financial reasons.