PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A stretch of Southern Boulevard was closed for hours last week, during the crash investigation that has now resulted in the death of three Palm Beach County sheriff deputies.
"I could hear the sirens, it was absolutely awful I felt really bad about what happened," said Raymond Penuela, who lives in Arden.
Penuela said he didn't know the victims personally but heard about the deputies through the community of first responders that live in Arden.
He said the impacts of the crash left traffic at a standstill throughout Southern Boulevard.
"If you had to gauge how many hours from the crash to when you finally made it home what would you say that number is?" asked WPTV's Joel Lopez.
"About six to seven hours," said Penuela. "We desperately would love to see a solution to this."
Arden has one entrance and exit, facing south on the north side of Southern Boulevard.
Penuela said this has been the third major incident in the area that has blocked traffic in his year and a half living in Arden.
He's one of the many residents pushing the county to work on a north exit out of Arden, to allow a different way out in the event of another incident on Southern Boulevard.
"This is not about convenience, this is about safety," said Penuela. "Some people are pregnant or they're very concerned that they can't get out in case of an emergency."
Currently Okeechobee Boulevard ends in a residential area just west of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road.
Arden residents would like to see it extended to the north end of Arden, which would provide them with a second entrance and exit.
This comes at a time when many residents continue to move to the area, with more projects on the way.
"It would make perfect sense that it would actually alleviate some of the traffic here or some of it," said Ben Brown. "And less traffic volume would prevent possibly these accidents from happening as frequently as they are currently."
Brown lives in Arden and is advocating for an Okeechobee extension, saying traffic impacts to Arden can be a domino effect.
"We have various first responders in this community," said Brown. "It's imperative for them to get to those jobs and the way traffic has been, it's not possible."
He said during last week's crash many residents, including himself, couldn't pick up their children from school because of the traffic.
"Our only alternative route currently is to go all the way west to Lake Okeechobee then go back around, which is a two hour detour," said Brown. "This is not the first incident that's occurred, this is the third one in the last 14, 15 months where the residents are literally trapped in our homes."
Brown and other residents plan to meet with county officials about the extension idea on Wednesday.
WPTV has reached out to the county and are working to get answers.
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