RENTON, Wash. — A King County road many neighbors call "dangerous" may soon get a lower speed limit.
King County officials said they will have a decision by the end of the month on whether the speed limit along 140th Avenue Southeast from the Renton City Limits to Southeast 192nd Street will be changed from 40 miles per hour to 35 miles per hour.
The road is known for having speeding and reckless drivers and is where a deadly crash in March took the lives of a woman and three children. Authorities said the teen suspect in that crash was going more than 100 miles per hour when he crashed into their car at the intersection of 140th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 192nd Street.
The suspect is scheduled for a pretrial hearing on Wednesday. and his trial is set for November.
“It was horribly tragic, horribly tragic,” said James Carver, who lives in the Fairwood community, that 140th SE runs through. “I live in the neighborhood adjacent to where those girls lived. I remember seeing them riding their bicycles and walking around.”
Carver has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years and said the road has been a hot spot for speeding and reckless driving for years, especially since the pandemic.
“This particular road, people scream down it,” Carver said. “I mean, 100 miles an hour is not unusual.”
He said even since the deadly March crash, he feels King County leaders have not done enough.
“Nothing's improved, nothing has changed,” Carver said. “The only thing has happened is there's been more accidents.”
King County held a public comment period last month to get input on reducing the speed limit of the road from 40 miles per hour to 35. Neighbors are still awaiting a decision.
“Reducing speed will help, is it going to be the perfect answer?" Carver said. "I don't think so. Is it going to make any difference? I don't know. But any change is acceptable at this point. It's a start. We'll take anything we can get.”
King County Council Vice-Chair Reagan Dunn said he believes the speed limit reduction might help, but he is looking at other options. He just got a study approved, with results expected in January, to see what safety changes could help make the area safer.
“This study aims to understand a little more about where it's happening the most and then solutions that could help slow the speeding down out there,” Dunn said. “Things like roundabouts, for example, curb signage, speed cameras, emphasis patrols by law enforcement.”
Dunn said he has met with the community and appreciates their ideas. He said the expert input from the study and input from the community will allow the county to put the best measures in place.
“I just think that the community has done a really good job in organizing and bringing forward potential solutions that I take seriously,” Dunn said.
Carver said he appreciates the road getting attention, but said action should have already happened and change is needed now.
“It's only going to get worse,” Carver said. “More people will die, and we'll be standing on this corner again saying the same thing again like we have been doing over and over.”