ROCK HILL, S.C. — Jennifer Malzahn is beyond frustrated. The large stone sign outside Family Promise of York County is once again in pieces, destroyed in an early morning car accident.
It's far from the first time. In fact, it's happened at least five times in a decade.
"It's happened, again and again. This a waste of money and this is dangerous," she said.
The downtown Rock Hill intersection of East Main Street and Confederate Avenue has been the scene of several serious crashes. The city has taken steps to make it safer, but the unusual problem hasn't gone away.
A pickup truck destroyed the sign Thursday morning after police said the driver of the Acura ran the stop sign on Confederate Avenue causing the pickup to swerve off the road into the sign.
Rock Hill city traffic manager Cliff Goolsby said the problem is clear, but finding a solution hasn't been.
Drivers on Confederate Avenue think they are at a four-way stop at Main Street, but it's not. So they stop, then go, thinking oncoming traffic will stop too. Once they pull out into the intersection, the car with the right of way has to swerve to avoid a T-bone crash.
In 2014 the city installed much bigger stop signs on Confederate Avenue and warnings in bright yellow, saying, "cross traffic, does not stop" but it hasn't helped.
The city said, statistically, three crashes a year would be expected at an intersection similar to Confederate Avenue at East Main Street.
Instead, there were six a year from 2010-2015 there have been five crashes already in 2017 by early June.
Terry Windell has lived nearby all his life and has complained about the intersection to city leaders.
"They’ve been helpful and very responsive. We just can't figure out the solution," Windell said. “It's difficult to fix the problem when it's not a matter of the road or the signage.”
"I think it's a perception thing and I don't know how to cure that," Windell said.
One idea is to fix perception is to remove the brick crosswalk that makes both streets look the same.
Goolsby said, despite being a smaller intersection that carried about 5,800 cars last year, the problem is brought up every year, because of ongoing complaints.
"The accidents there are serious, and it's a problem," Goolsby said.
The intersection once had a flashing caution light years ago. It's believed that it was damaged during hurricane Hugo, and never replaced.
For Malzahn, one day an out-of-control car, isn't going to stop at her sign, but end up in her office.
"This is scary to me," she said. "We have insurance, but we're tired of fixing the sign."
There were no serious injuries in the crash Thursday morning.
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