WILMINGTON — In response to the July 29 accident that claimed the life of a local 4-year-old, further street and road safety measures were discussed at Thursday’s Wilmington City Council meeting.

During the meeting, City Safety/Service Director Brian Shidaker spoke about how City Engineer Paul Goodhue and his team have been working alongside the Safety/Service department to understand what led to the accident, and will then formulate measures that will prevent similar events in the future.

“(The accident) serves as a stark reminder of the urgency to prioritize road safety within our community. The fact that such a young life was taken is a reminder that our work to ensure safety on our roads is more than a duty. It is a responsibility called to every person who travels our streets,” said Shidaker.

On July 29, a two-vehicle accident on US Route 22 resulted in the death of Ryder McDaniel, of Blanchester. According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the vehicle Ryder was in struck a vehicle head-on. All occupants in both vehicles were injured. Ryder was transported to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Goodhue spoke to the council about the measures they’ve been taking. Goodhue told the council that since the accident, they’ve done a “fatal review”of the area. He advised they discovered that some of the traffic control devices weren’t up to standards.

“Unfortunately, what I’m not recommending is enhancements to traffic safety. What I’m actually going to be recommending are countermeasures that frankly should be there already,” he said.

He added that before the crash, the area in question wasn’t looked at prior due to no previous crashes. He advised he was disappointed they hadn’t looked at the area prior to the fatal accident, but he wanted to quickly put a plan together to prevent future accidents.

Some of these changes include adding signage to “freshen things up” as he described it. One of these would be a sign while traveling westbound on U.S. 22 advising a curve ahead and to reduce speed for the stop sign ahead.

He noted these were short-term measures and they would need to do a deeper study to look at long-term fixes.

Reach John Hamilton at 937-382-2574