South Central Student Elle Kimmel has made it her personal mission to improve the safety at an intersection where a fatal accident that claimed the life of her father occurred in February of 2007.
Kimmel is calling for a stop light or some other safety measures to be implemented at the La Porte County intersection of US Highway 30 and South 600 West, which is locally referred to as School Road.
What started as a persuasive speech topic for a dual-credit course has gained support from more than 1,550 people after Kimmel placed a petition online last Thursday to get the word out about her proposal.
In her description, Kimmel highlights a number of statistics and information to support why she believes improving safety at this intersection is vital.
In addition to mentioning that she doesn’t want any other family to have to go through what hers did, she included the fact that the intersection is not only frequented by industrial traffic that travels at high speeds but it’s also regularly traveled by student drivers who attend South Central Junior/Senior High School.
Elle’s mother, June Spoa-Kimmel, commented on how she made a similar effort to improve safety in the area after losing her husband Richard.
However, she said she wasn’t able to get take it very far as her main priority was caring of her two young children, who were both under five at the time.
June said she was filled with an abundance of pride when her daughter approached her with plans to reignite the cause with a persuasive speech for class.
She shared, “I am overly, overly proud of her. Being a single mom for the last 12 years, raising two kids, it’s been a hard road but when see the fruits of your labor, how your children are inspiring instead of going down a road that…you just don’t know what’s going to happen, being that there is that missing piece of the puzzle in the house hold and she’s doing positive things instead negative things in today’s age…I couldn’t be more proud of her.”
In addition to all the people who have shown their support through the online petition, this effort has gained attention from officials as well, such as State Representative Jim Pressel.
He will be in attendance as Kimmel delivers her speech in class on Wednesday and an invitation has also been extended to officials from the Indiana Department of Transportation.
