Detroit residents asking for installation of new traffic signal after deadly crash

High speed crash caught on video

DETROIT – A deadly high speed crash was caught on a home security camera and neighbors said they were just waiting for a tragedy like this to happen.

One neighbor has been fighting to get a stop light at that intersection, saying it’s just too dangerous. 

Rosie Huby is 95 and for the last 30 years, she has lived in her home at the intersection of Frankfort and Chalmers streets. 

“In my opinion. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” said Huby. 

Huby is talking about cars speeding in her neighborhood. A memorial sits in front of her home, from the latest crash, just last week. 

Local 4 obtained video of a car speeding through the stop sign on Frankfort Street and hitting another car. 

“It was so severe. I couldn’t help but see it. People dead and folks were just all over the place,” Huby said. 

Police said two people died in that car, a 31-year-old woman and a 34-year-old man. Speeding is not the only issue about which neighbors here are worried. They’re also talking about drivers and the oncoming traffic. 

“That’s a blind spot. See, that’s a blind spot. That apartment building, that’s a blind spot. You can’t see,” said one nearby resident. 

Many neighbors are asking for the city to place a stop light at the intersection. It’s something Huby said her husband fought for before he died and now, she’s hoping that will happen before another crash. 

“If I don’t live to see it, I hope somebody else would be able to enjoy living in the neighborhood,” said Huby. 

Police said Markia Pitts, the driver in the most recent crash, is charged with two counts of reckless driving causing death, causing serious impairment of a bodily function and one count of failure to stop at the scene of a property damage crash. 

A Detroit official told Local 4 his office is not currently considering the traffic signal at Frankfort and Chalmers streets, primarily because there already is a traffic signal one block south at Warren and Chalmers and two blocks north at Chandler Park Drive.  

The official does not believe that the traffic volume is sufficient on Frankfort Street to justify another traffic signal. Frankfort Street currently has stop signs.