Deanna Sargent looked both ways, backed her truck out of the driveway of her Eldersburg home and struck a motorcyclist, injuring him. She said her neighbor?s unruly trees and shrubs blocked her sight of Bartholow Road.
Now Sargent wants Carroll commissioners to approve an amendment to county code that would prevent this from happening to others.
“When bushes are blocking people?s views, there?s nothing [by law] that the county can legitimately do to make people cut them down,” county spokeswoman Vivian Laxton said.
But a proposed amendment to the zoning code would forbid property owners from “maintain[ing] or erect[ing] a fence, wall, mailbox, hedge, tree, shrubbery, vines, weeds, plantings or the like on private property at or near any existing access point or proposed access point to publicly maintained roads which cause an obstruction to vision for motorists.”
Sargent said she hopes the commissioners will enact this legislation to create a positive development from her own incident.
The real estate agent and mother of three young children said the amendment would make many places throughout Carroll where vegetation looms alongside roads much safer for drivers and pedestrians.
“When I contacted the county roads guy, he nearly got hit by a car walking” across the street, Sargent said. “There are freedoms, but I don?t believe they should infringe on someone else?s safety. This doesn?t just affect me; it affects a lot of people in this county.”
A public hearing is slated for 10 a.m. Jan. 23 in Room 300A of the County Office Building in Westminster.
IF YOU GO
» What: Public informational workshop on sight distance
» When: 3:30 p.m. Wednesday
» Where: Room 105, County Office Building, 225 N. Center St., Westminster
