Sunday letters: Speeders endanger pets, children

Recently, a neighbor's dog was hit and killed by a speeding driver in my neighborhood. The guy had to have been going 40 to 45 mph.

I was outside with my own dog when it happened and yelled at the driver that he was driving too fast. It happened so quickly, and my neighbor's young boys witnessed it all.

The guy did stop and apologized for what happened, and my neighbor and he exchanged phone numbers.

And I apologized for yelling at him.

As a result of the incident, I later made two largely unsuccessful telephone calls to the Richland County ombudsman’s office.

I re-told the events surrounding the death of my neighbor’s pet to the woman on the phone and was told that she would pass this information to the roads and drainage department. And I was also told for the first time that our road is privately owned by the developer and the roads and drainage department would let the developer know of the situation.

School is getting out in the next month, and there will be many children in the neighborhood who will be outside a great deal this summer. We need to get speed limit signs in our neighborhood before another tragedy happens, and next time it could be a child hit and killed by a speeding driver. I certainly hope not.

Columbia

This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Sunday letters: Speeders endanger pets, children."