Some drivers along Northwest Highway in Dallas travel so fast they're not only a danger to people on the road but also to those inside their own homes.
Northwest Highway is both a city street and a state road that runs east to west from Garland to Las Colinas. A stretch of the roadway, near Buckner Boulevard in Dallas, is known as Loop 12 to the west and Spur 244 to the east.
Viewers who lived along Northwest Highway reached out to NBC 5 Investigates saying they weren't getting any help from the city or TxDOT in slowing down the traffic.
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The pictures tell the story of what it's like to live near a street with cars moving so fast that sometimes a giant fence isn't enough to keep them from posing a danger to families.
"We've got people in the neighborhood that are afraid to have their kids play in the backyard," said Steve Mendoza.
Mendoza told NBC 5 Investigates that at least three times vehicles have shattered the fence outside his neighborhood, The Enclave at Wyrick Estates, which backs up to Northwest Highway and its six lanes of fast-moving traffic.
One of those crashes showered Barry O'Reilly's home with debris.
"A vehicle lost control and knocked down a number of trees, steel poles, a fence and then stopped outside the bedroom window," O'Reilly said. "That one, it happened in the middle of the night. And it was like, it scared the family. All of us were home and I've got young kids."
In November, a driver was killed in a crash near the entrance to the neighborhood.
NBC 5 Investigates searched records from the Texas Department of Transportation and found at least 688 crashes over five years just along the stretch of Northwest Highway between Audelia and Garland roads.
O'Reilly and his neighbors want help from TxDOT and the city of Dallas because Northwest Highway is both a state road and a city street.
"People are dying and I don't know what it's going to take for them to take it seriously enough to do something about these troublesome areas and to do something right outside our gate," O'Reilly said.
O'Reilly and his neighbors have asked TxDOT to install a stoplight to slow traffic and a guardrail to protect their homes. O'Reilly emailed TxDOT officials a warning 18 months ago saying, "This is the second time a vehicle has come through our back yard and this time it could have killed someone."
Officials with TxDOT responded by email and said, "Based on all information reviewed guardrail will not be added at this location. We will continue to monitor…" In another email, TxDOT told residents that speeding appeared to be a problem on the roadway and said "the city should be contacting the local law enforcement."
"The state is saying that it's for the city of Dallas to solve. The city of Dallas is saying this is a TxDOT road so they have no control over it. And really, we're just we're looking for help because we're caught in the middle," Mendoza said.
NBC 5 Investigates repeatedly contacted TxDOT. Through an agency spokesperson, Dallas District Engineer Ceason Clemons turned down multiple requests for an interview.
The spokesperson told NBC 5 Investigates that TxDOT, "Installed flashing speed feedback signs near this location" in October and that the city is responsible for installing traffic lights, and that "the city of Dallas will request authorization from TxDOT if the city plans to add a signal at this location."
The spokesman said TxDOT does not plan to install a guardrail because "The neighborhood homes are outside of the right-of-way and beyond the roadway clear zone."
"We feel that our voices are not being heard right now and we're not getting help from either TxDOT or the City of Dallas," Mendoza said.
NBC 5 Investigates took the neighborhood's concerns to City Councilmember Paula Blackmon, who represents the area, and asked her if there should be a stoplight installed to slow traffic and a guardrail installed to protect homes.
"I believe, yes. But there is a process for all of this," Blackmon said. The councilwoman said she is urging city staff to expedite a traffic study and encourage TxDOT to approve a stoplight. She's also requested a meeting with TxDOT's district engineer.
"We're going to have a meeting in March, of a little working group, and really, start honing in on what is the solution," Blackmon said.
As part of a long-term solution, Blackmon said she'd like the city to negotiate with TxDOT to take back control of Northwest Highway and other state roads that run through congested city neighborhoods. She said those highways, built decades ago and which were designed to move traffic fast, should be redesigned as pedestrian-friendly boulevards with narrow lanes that slow speeds.
"We need to ask to say, 'Hey, are you willing to acknowledge that these are not highways anymore and that they are a part of our fabric of a city," Blackmon said.
Mendoza, who said walking in the area with traffic zooming by was nerve-racking, said reshaping the road would treat the causes of the high speeds and not just the symptoms. Without that change, he worries about people even beyond his neighborhood.
NBC 5 Investigates joined Mendoza on a walk to a nearby bus stop. There were no sidewalks to get there and the stop was surrounded only by grass. Anyone wanting to get to the bus stop from the apartment complex across the road would have to walk a long way to first find a crosswalk.
"There's no crosswalk to get across the street. And there's traffic flying by," Mendoza said.
Blackmon said that the lack of a crosswalk and sidewalk was "really unfortunate planning" and that "it shouldn't be that way." The councilwoman said she planned to address that location with TxDOT and city road planners.
Meanwhile, neighbors continue to wait, hoping for swift action to tame traffic and restore their sense of safety.
"We can do better as a city. This is just ridiculous, really," Mendoza said.
The city's Transportation Department said it has been conducting a "signal warrant analysis" to see if it can request that TxDOT approve a traffic light near the neighborhood entrance. In a statement to NBC 5 the city said, if the study shows a signal is not warranted the city, "will evaluate and seek TxDOT approval for other possible mitigating measures."
The bigger changes proposed by Blackmon would involve substantial money and would likely involve years of planning, construction and negotiation with TxDOT.
However, Blackmon said if voters approve the city's proposed capital bond program in May she will use some of the discretionary money allotted to her district to begin implementing more quick-fix traffic calming and pedestrian safety devices on some of the city's legacy roadways.
