COLORADO SPRINGS — A few residents who live along E Platte Avenue in Colorado Springs told News5 they witness many accidents and crashes at the intersection of Platte Avenue and Prospect Street. They claim the intersection is dangerous because of the drainage dip.
John Marshall and Marea Janae have lived on E Platte Ave for nearly five years. They were woken up early Saturday morning to the sounds of a car crash.
Janae described it as a scary scene. She was one of the first people to arrive at the car crash along Platte Avenue around 3:40am.
“She took down the light pole and also hit the tree and then the car caught on fire was laying sideways,” Marshall said.
Marshall and Janae are still shocked by what they saw.
“We heard the accident happen. I was in my room just, you know, asleep and then suddenly woke up to this loud crash,” Marshall said.
Marshall and Janae ran out of their house and across the street to where the car had burst into flames. The car was headed eastbound on Platte Ave and crashed into a light pole right after the intersection of Platte Avenue and Prospect Street.
Marshall said two men who live down the street acted as heroes. He said they smashed open the car's moon roof and pulled the driver out.
“At that point the fire was fully going ,you could see the glass was melting, there was flames and stuff everywhere,” Marshall said.
Marshall rushed inside and grabbed a fire extinguisher. Janae said another neighbor did the same.
“I used all of the fire extinguishers but the car was still on fire,” Marshall said.
He said firefighters arrived a few minutes later. Janae took a video that shows debris from the car laying all across the sidewalk.
“It keeps happening and nothing seems to be done about it,” Janae said.
Janae said accidents are common on this stretch of Platte Ave because of what they call the deathly dip.
“People are getting killed because of this dip right there,” Marshall said.
Last September two Fort Carson soldiers were killed while traveling east on Platte Ave.
As we previously reported, the car lost control and struck the center median curb and hit a tree. Marshall and Janae said the drainage dip needs to be fixed.
“You know people are bumping into it, smashing into it and losing car parts or things from their trailer. So that's just like a very regular occurrence,” Janae said.
We watched as some drivers anticipated the dip and slowed down, while others drove over it at full speed.
“Like there are drainage dips all down this roadway, and there aren't fatal accidents on a consistent basis all down this roadway. This one is much more dramatic and much more of an issue than any of the other ones,” Janae said.
Janae said there should be a dip ahead sign warning people before they drive over it. She said this is a safety issue and she does not want to see anyone else get hurt.
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