Crossroads of sorrow.
Byline: Winston Ross The Register-GuardFLORENCE - It was his last summer before high school. The big time. So Dustin Eichelberger hopped on his bike one sunny summer day and headed for the Siuslaw High School campus to get a glimpse at his new digs.
But the 14-year-old never made it across Highway 101.
The first truck stopped to let him cross the highway on 30th Street, which is regulated by only a crosswalk. But the approaching car on the inside lane couldn't see the youngster and slammed into him. Dustin died a few hours later at Peace Harbor Hospital.
It was July 7, 2000. Four years later, the teen's mother is extracting something positive from the tragedy.
Debby Eichelberger is fighting to make the intersection where her son died safer. But fighting isn't really the right word. After a few well-placed phone calls to lawmakers in May, she was stunned to see the system spring into action.
"ODOT called me," she said. "They said, 'We need a meeting.' '
After the accident, she had refused to let herself get angry, to reconcile her grief by seeking revenge against the driver of the car. So she waited until she could set aside her emotions and pondered a way to make something good come out of it.
She distributed petitions to area businesses and got 700 signatures favoring safety improvements at the intersection. She called U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith and state Reps. Joanne Verger and Alan Brown, who called the Oregon Department of Transportation.
"It wasn't this hysterical, emotional kind of thing," Verger said. "It was very well thought-out. Anybody who listened to the Eichelbergers' story would be touched by the loss of their son, but I was also impressed by Debby's clear thinking about getting something actually accomplished in Florence."
What she'll get remains unclear, said Bruce Erickson, a state traffic manager. But the message that emerged from the ODOT meeting last month with city officials, police and others won't be ignored: Florence is a dangerous place to be a pedestrian.
With five lanes of traffic to cross throughout Florence, surviving a trip across the busy coastal highway can feel like a game of "Frogger." There are no islands where pedestrians can stop in the middle and wait for the next clear moment, and only four traffic lights within city limits, which can give drivers the false impression that they can blaze through town - despite the 30 mph speed limit in most stretches.
That's why the state is considering a grant that would look at the entire Florence corridor of 101 to examine ways to improve not just the intersection at 30th but the entire arterial.
"It is not pedestrian-friendly," Erickson said.
All of which is welcome news to Eichelberger. But she's particularly concerned about 30th Street because it intersects the Siuslaw campus and is a de facto school crossing zone - minus the signs depicting it as such.
She'd like to see the intersection officially declared a school crossing zone, which would require a lower speed limit during school hours and the accompanying signs. She'd also like to see the speed limit dropped, from 40 mph to 30 mph at that spot. And a stoplight wouldn't hurt, either.
ODOT will conduct several studies counting pedestrians and traffic to see what's warranted for that particular intersection, Erickson said.
He cautioned that too many signs can cause drivers to tune out warnings altogether, and traffic lights can lead to an increase in minor accidents. One option is a push-button stoplight that halts drivers on 101 only if there's someone waiting to cross.
Whatever happens, the mission has helped Debby Eichelberger work through her grief over her son.
Dustin was "our clown," Eichelberger said, recalling a note from a yearbook that his classmates signed after he died: "When we were sad, Dustin would know this, and he would tell us a joke until we would laugh, be happy again."
Dustin was so small - barely cracking 5 feet - that he moved his bedroom to the kitchen pantry at the Eichelberger house, so he could have his own space, his mother said. With three sisters and two brothers, it was an understandable desire, she said.
But the boy made up for his size with energy and good humor, Eichelberger said.
An avid Boy Scout, Dustin was working hard to earn the rank of Eagle Scout in the summer of 2000, helping the city build a bridge at a local park. To honor his efforts, the Scouts gave him a posthumous "Spirit of the Eagle" medal
When she's busy, Eichelberger can distract herself from thinking about Dustin too much. It's the quiet times "when I'm by myself, with a lot of time to think," that it gets hard.
"I just get sad," she said, fighting back tears. "I miss him. I wonder what he would be doing."
CAPTION(S):
Winston Ross can be reached at (541) 902-9030 or rgcoast@oregonfast.net. Thomas Boyd / The Register-Guard Debby Eichelberger wants a stoplight at 30th Street and Highway 101, where her son, Dustin, was hit by a car and died in 2000.
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| Publication: | The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) |
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| Date: | Jul 19, 2004 |
| Words: | 847 |
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