CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WTVR)–Monday’s tragic scene off Jessup Road in Chesterfield County, is all too familiar for folks living close by.
“I don’t know how many–but it is a lot,” said Greg Babinat.
Babinat lives next to the ravine and creek where Auriel Shazer’s car recently slammed into a tree. For more than a decade, he says with just a little bit of moisture, the curve becomes “hell on wheels.”
“Whenever we get a little bit of rain, it gets slick,” said Babinat. “I don’t know if they forget, or what. Somebody is always in the ditch.”
Babinat, along with neighbor Amanda Ward say they have asked V-DOT to make safety improvements to that stretch of road.
“There really needs to be guard rails, but there’s no safe guard at all,” said Ward.
VDOT says they did a survey and study on Jessup Road but had to put the brakes on the guard rail idea. In a statement about their findings, they claim a guardrail would do more harm than good.
“Her legacy will go on, even if she’s not here,” said her father, Henry Shazer.
Meanwhile, those grieving the loss of the 18-year-old Shazer-are struggling with reality
“I’m trying to figure out how it could happen,” said Shazer. “I taught her how to drive at a young age.”
He’s a dad now shouldering the weight of losing his oldest daughter, someone he swore he’d always protect. “You never want to hear that she passed. Dad is supposed to save the day, but I couldn’t,” he said.
