Local officials focus on U.S. 60 roadway improvements in Owensboro

OWENSBORO, Ky. (WEHT) — Owensboro residents want to see some changes made on US-60. After public outcry, the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office has increased patrols on the bypass — leading to over 40 citations issued in a 3-day period.

“Everybody has an opinion about what needs to happen out there,” Daviess County Sheriff Brad Youngman said. “And for every person that says ‘We need to lower the speed limit,’ you have someone that says ‘No you need to keep it the same.’ People talk about cable areas and people talk about extra signage. People talk about reconstruction of certain part of the roadways. All of those decisions are pretty impactful, so we want to make sure we get it right.”

As DCSO continues to investigate the fatal crash on September 4 that took the lives of two people and severely injured another, the sheriff deployed additional patrols in effort to curb reckless drivers. Sheriff Youngman says deputies caught drivers going as fast as 90 miles per hour in a 65 mile per hour speed limit. He says other citations were issued for drivers failing to use turn signals when merging lanes.

“I think most of the aggressive drivers like to merge without a lot of space in-between,” resident Marley Davis said. “They are the ones that don’t give you warning. So if you happen to be speeding up or slowing down, at that point, it gets a lot more dangerous.”

Lorelai Kirtley and Marley Davis were born and raised in Owensboro who believe the bypass has been “neglected” throughout the years but is pleased to see the sheriff and other local leaders are gearing up to move forward on some changes.

“Obviously you can’t change a lot about the bypass but I think the fact that they’re finally approaching the situation instead of not knowing what to do about it and being stagnant is important,” Kirtley said.

Sheriff Youngman says next week he will be presenting bypass data — which includes the citations that were issued — from the last three years at a meeting with State Representatives Suzanne Miles and DJ Johnson.