Lake County family pleads for safety improvements after nearly half-a-dozen cars crash near their property

MASCOTTE, Fla. - A family in Mascotte says there have been not one, not two, but five crashes around their property.

The latest one totaled their cars, and they consider themselves lucky their house is still intact.

They say a sharp, unmarked curve is to blame.

The curve comes after a long straightaway with no signs warning people to slow down.

People in the neighborhood says cars have crashed into poles, different trees, neighbors’ fences, and now finally these cars.

Now, this family is left without any way to get to the grocery store, their doctor’s appointments – or anywhere else.

The latest crash was caught on surveillance video. You can hear a car barreling down the road.

A teenager crashed into a truck so hard, the force blasted it into two vehicles beside it, like (very) expensive dominoes.

"I couldn't even talk," said Steve Saxbury, whose cars were hit. "I just looked like I thought I was dreaming."

Surveillance shows the driver and two others run off after that, but a Mascotte Police report says they were all caught a little bit later.

The Saxbury family says things could have been worse.

"Me and my grandbabies sleep on the back side of the house," said Steve’s wife, Vicky Saxbury.

The thing is, this is not the first time something like this has happened here. The curve doesn’t have any sort of signage warning people you’re approaching it, and there aren’t speed limit signs or lights around the area either.

"It was scary before, but it’s getting worse," Vicky said. "You lay in bed sometimes at night and you hear him come in, and you just hope and pray that they made the curve."

The family has been asking the Police Department and the City to add signage or barriers.

"Nothing ever gets done," said Vicky Saxbury. "It just a circle."

The City finally sent over a safety device request form, but it says the requester would have to pay for the road safety improvements.

They’re worried something even worse will happen before someone steps in to help.

"We just want something done," said Steve Saxbury. That’s it, that’s the main thing – getting something done."
FOX 35 did reach out to the City Manager and City Clerks about this, but they’re all out of the office for the next few days following this report.'

The Mascotte Police Chief did get back to us, however.

Chief Eric Pedersen told FOX 35 he can see how the curve is sharp and would cause an issue. He says he feels for the family.

He also said they do speed enforcement around neighborhoods. They did enforcement here around October of last year, and they’ve ramped it up some recently.

They have a traffic data counter up right now to record vehicles’ speeds and how many are coming through.

That’ll help police better understand what’s happening around here and how to respond.

They hope to get that data back this weekend.