Cat killed by speeding car prompts angry sign in Bluffton

For the past year, Amanda Stewart has watched and heard cars zoom by her house on Foreman Hill Road in greater Bluffton, powerless to stop the speeders navigating the curving road near the All Joy area.

But when Stewart awoke last week to find that her beloved 11-year-old cat Senor Gato had been hit and killed by a car, she knew action needed to be taken. In the days since the death of her cat, Stewart has placed a sign in the median by her home with a strong message.

"We had to bury our cat because you wouldn't slow down," the sign reads in capital letters. "If that was one of my kids your family would be burying you."

Another sign farther up the street carries a similar message: "Road closed to speeders."

Stewart and other neighbors are incensed at speeders on Foreman Hill Road, a two-lane residential road that connects Malphrus and Ulmer roads. In addition to the death of Senor Gato, speeding vehicles on the road have taken out mailboxes, bushes and damaged the medians, Stewart said.

"All the neighbors have been complaining about the speeders," she said Thursday. "It was Senor Gato that really prompted me to be obnoxious with the sign. The speeding has just gotten worse and worse and worse."

Foreman Hill Road was initially a dead-end street off Ulmer Road in greater Bluffton, but that changed when Beaufort County moved to connect it to Malphrus Road, which ended north of the neighborhood, resident Mark Murray said.

Murray moved onto the street in February 2012. By that August, the two roads had been connected, opening closer access to the All Joy area and Myrtle Island. Murray said many drivers use the road to get to Old Town Bluffton as a shortcut.

"About a year after they opened it, it got really bad," he said.

Ever since, Murray and neighbors have asked Beaufort County for speed bumps or other measures to slow cars.

Foreman Hill Road has a 25 mph speed limit, but most drivers travel down the road nearly 10 mph faster, according to a study by the Beaufort County Traffic and Transportation Engineering department released in November.

The study, which collected car speeds on three different days from 2012 to 2014, found that the 85th percentile speed -- which is commonly used to set and regulate speed limits -- increased over the span, from 32.5 mph to 34 mph.

Stewart has lived on Foreman Hill Road for three years. Senor Gato, an indoor-outdoor cat, never had a problem in his frequent travels outside until last week, she said.

Stewart said she's been passed and been on the receiving end of offensive gestures for driving the speed limit on the road. Many of the curves in the road are blind corners, and she's had to avoid getting hit while jogging and pushing her two young children in a stroller.

"You would figure since there are a lot of curves, it would keep the road slow," she said. "But even with the blind corners, people come around quickly. It's incredibly unsafe."

Stewart said her children are too young to go near the street, but she worries about the older children on the block who ride bicycles or rollerblades in or near the road.

More neighbors are planning to put out signs urging people to slow down, Stewart said. Her sign has had an effect, as she's seen drivers slow down to read the message, she said.

Help could be on the way soon. The Beaufort County study released in November included recommendations that four speed bumps and a small traffic circle be built on the road. The traffic circle would slow cars transitioning from the faster Malphrus Road to the more residential Foreman Hill Road, and the speed bumps would be placed at intervals to slow cars entering the curves on the road, the study said.

Murray said the contract for the construction is still in the bidding process. County traffic engineer Colin Kinton said Friday a contract with Preferred Materials Inc. has been approved and a schedule for construction would be set up soon.

Stewart said she and her husband have talked about getting another indoor-outdoor cat since Senor Gato's death. Their home had plenty of open space for him to roam, and in turn, Senor Gato kept rodents and snakes out of the yard.

However, they won't consider bringing one home until the traffic problem is fixed.

"Maybe if the traffic slows down," she said. "We have an electric fence for our dogs, but I don't know how you contain a cat. It would be in danger here."

Follow reporter Matt McNab at twitter.com/IPBG_Matt.

This story was originally published May 15, 2015 at 9:19 AM with the headline "Cat killed by speeding car prompts angry sign in Bluffton."