TOWN OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — At the corner of Woodstock Avenue and Yorkshire Road, you'll find a growing memorial for 15-year-old Luke Guetti.
Guetti was hit by a truck while riding his bicycle through the intersection. Messages on the curb read "You will never be forgotten."
The community is rallying behind Guetti's family through a GoFundMe raising thousands of dollars.
Neighbors like Bill Fritzinger have been raising concerns about how dangerous the intersection can be.
"I hear horns," he said. "I'm working in the house or outside, I hear the horn and I'm like, 'Oh! I know what that was.'"
Fritzinger grew up in one of the homes at the corner of this intersection. He said even back in the 80s, he had witnessed how problematic this intersection was.
"I was standing out there and there was an accident. It actually hit our house. One car deflected and hit the corner of my dad's house at the time and took out some of the brickwork," he said. "Cars are really cruising down Woodstock."
Town of Tonawanda Supervisor Joe Emminger says after the tragic accident, neighbors reached out asking that the intersection change to a four-way stop.
"There haven't been a lot of accidents at that intersection, but there have been more accidents this year than over the last four or five years combined," Emminger said.
So he asked the engineering and police departments to conduct a study to see if it was necessary.
"Fairly early on we were advised that it's probably going to come back, that it wasn't going to require one. So at that point, the town board started talking amongst ourselves, 'Okay, what do we want to do?' We still have the final say," Emminger said. "And we decided that all of us wanted to see a stop sign put up."
The board will hold a public hearing on October 7 at 7 p.m. before the board votes. Emminger said the board is in favor of the stop.
"We're erring on the side of caution, in my opinion, and I think that's the right way to err in this matter," he said.
"I'm all for the four-way," Fritzinger said.
