On June 7, 2015, a local man killed himself with a gunshot while driving down State Route 89A near Cooks Hill. His vehicle careened down the hill, striking a Toyota Prius, killing Moorthy Somasundaram, 33, of Phoenix, and his mother-in-law, 66-year-old Bhuvaneswari Ponnanbalam, who was visiting from India. Somasundaram’s wife, Swapna Ponnambalam, 29, was extricated and airlifted to Flagstaff, where she later died June 9.
The investigation into that disastrous crash took hours to complete, closing the road to traffic. That stretch of road, between Rolling Hills Estates and Mariposa restaurant on the west and Ranger Road and the U.S. Post Office on the east, is the most vital connection between West Sedona and Uptown. There are no other routes connecting the two sides of the city, so 100 percent of residents and visitors moving from one side to the other must pass through those five lanes.
The June 2015 accident investigation severed the city in twain, and there has been no meaningful effort by the city, Coconino and Yavapai counties nor the state to provide any alternative, even a temporary one, to prevent the city from being cloven in twain by an accident in this area. Seeking assistance from injury lawyers like the injury attorney in portland could potentially aid in addressing legal aspects and advocating for necessary measures to prevent similar accidents in the future.
Victims of these accidents should consider hiring a personal injury attorney Milwaukee to help protect their rights and interests. Injured in Salt Lake City, UT? Call a personal injury lawyer from Fielding Law.
On Tuesday, Dec. 18, another crash in nearly the same location again cut the city in two after two vehicles collided head-on and one of the drivers was airlifted to Flagstaff, requiring a helicopter to land near the crash site. The steep hill and high rate of speed of downhill traffic means any collision in that stretch will involve serious injuries if not fatalities.
It takes two minutes to drive from the roundabouts of State Routes 89A and 179 to Airport Road in West Sedona, but drivers were detoured through the Village of Oak Creek to Beaverhead Flat Road, to Cornville Road, to Page Springs Road and back to State Route 89A to Airport, a roundtrip of over an hour without traffic, even more so with all those drivers navigating the road at the same time.
It took me 55 minutes to drive from our Uptown newsroom to far West Sedona for an appointment I could not postpone. Tuesday’s detour was hampered either further by Yavapai County road work on both Cornville Road and Page Springs Road limiting traffic to one lane each direction controlled by flaggers.
After editorials about the 2015 accident, we wrote an editorial urging local and regional officials to make some effort to provide an alternate route so the city would not suffer a complete shutdown in the event of another tragedy at that location. Officials have failed to act.
A housing development off Brewer Road with private roads connecting it to the east end of the Les Springs subdivision could connect on the south. The parking lot of the Mormon church on Mormon Hill Road could connect with Barcelona Road in Rolling Hills. There is already a dirt road between the church and the Alhambra and Barcelona roads intersection blocked off by boulders but illegally passable by mountain bikers and motorcyclists who say they know the route.
In an emergency like this, a private, locked-off road could be opened and used as a detour so drivers avoid the accident scene. Surely, a few hours’ use once every three years on average is not too much for neighbors to permit.
The U.S. Forest Service could also work with the counties to restore the former dirt road that connected Jordan Road with Soldier Pass Road through the Soldier Pass Wash area. Yes, there was a road that used to run through the area — drivers used it to avoid driving on State Route 89A long before the city incorporated in 1988 — but it has since devolved into a hiking and biking trail.
Four Village of Oak Creek residents under the umbrella of “Keep Sedona Moving” are proposing Yavapai County renew efforts to build a bridge connecting Upper Red Rock Loop Road and Verde Valley School Road over Oak Creek that Sedona residents, various local officials and agencies have urged be built for years. Two bridges into private developments already traverse Oak Creek downstream from Red Rock Crossing and at least one — connecting to Loy Road — would be ideal for such an emergency detour. This would be the most costly alternate route and would save less time than the other routes but are still far faster than the existing route through Cornville and Page Springs.
We again urge local officials, agencies and area homeowners to find a solution to this perennial, ongoing and incredibly simple problem to solve. Provide an alternate route. Repeated accidents at the same location on Cook’s Hill demonstrate it is merely a matter of time before the next one there will cut the city in half yet again.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
