BROKEN ARROW, Okla. -- In between Waco and Florence, 9th Street is eroding near the water.
It's a road with sharp curves that's already causing problems for drivers. After a vote this week, city council hopes grant funding will add new guard rails to prevent injuries.
"The driver notices that there's drop offs, and it's getting closer and closer because of the way the creek has run so we're trying to avoid people literally driving off into a ditch," Vice Mayor Scott Eudey said.
Eudey lives along 9th Street himself, and said the commute into town can make people nervous.
"There's places where that ditch is so deep that if someone were to go, you may not see them for a day or two. So there's a chance if there were a wreck, someone not being able to get the help they needed," Eudey said.
That fear was Eric Booth's reality last winter. The South Broken Arrow resident said even with sand on the ground, he lost control into the curves.
"I just turned a little bit too hard and the rear end of my car fell down in the creek. Nobody would have seen me if I hadn't have crawled up to this guard rail right here. My car was filling up with water," Booth said.
Over the last few years, Booth lost multiple friends in this spot as well.
"A lot of them were mainly just hitting trees and things like that, due to the curves in the road and things like that. You can drive down the road here and see the marks on the trees and where they don't have any bark on them," he said.
Residents said the traffic along 9th has only increased, leading to more slide-offs, accidents, and additional calls for officers.
"There's a lot more people traveling, people moving out to Coweta and they're taking this road as well. So it's really starting to congest," Booth said.
The federal Road to Zero grant is aimed at eliminating deaths behind the wheel. The city is expected to learn within the next six months if they'll get the $200,000 in funding.
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