Killing Cats, Hitting Old Men, and Running Over Bicyclists

Today we witnessed a concerning accident.

We were home and witnessed a haul truck, stopped at the Parks Dr Stop sign, back into a white car.  The white car was honking.  The haul truck driver was on his phone.  After striking the white car he remained on his phone while the little old man he struck yelled at him for a minute.  When the driver did get out of his truck it was apparent that there was no resolution and the two drivers started yelling at each other.  From the window it appeared your driver was trying to convince the white car there was no damage. They each drove off separate directions.

 

We continue to not be impressed with site safety and conduct. 

 

We can't figure out why the haul truck was backing up and we're concerned it could have been us, even us out for a walk with our baby, not just us in a car.  It was clear the driver was not aware of the other vehicles around him when he did a very dangerous action by unexpectedly backing up at an intersection.   

 

Then, for the driver of the offending haul truck to act in the manner we witnessed toward the other driver is entirely unacceptable.

 

The old Project Manager told me that it was one of the site construction trucks that struck a cyclist several months ago in Newberg as well.

 

And I remember their first week on the job when the site mechanic ran over my neighbors cat for fun, with me watching as I got in my car to go to work.  He claimed it "was an accident".  He can say what he wants but I'm not a moron.  I've sped up for a squirrel/bird or two myself.

 

He also got in a yelling match with me when I yelled at his truck, "real nice!".  He slammed on his brakes, backed up and acted aggressively.  Of course I didn't back down and he eventually drove off but I was stewing for a week.

 

The neighbor told me that the cat was the only thing he had of his sister's; she had passed away two years ago.

Deforestation of Wildlife Habitat and Community Sound Barrier - Newberg-Dundee Bypass

I'm starting this blog because I've become fed up with how inconsiderate the Newberg Dundee Bypass project is considering the residents of Dundee.  This first post is a photo of the harvested forest that WAS between us and the road.  They are in the process of taking out the trees all along the South East side of Dundee although they're well away from the proposed road (in the above photo, the proposed road is back where the crane and red truck are; the road you see is simply one of many access roads blighting our community now).

I have no idea why they are doing this.  I hope they did their environmental studies because I'm sure there were all sorts of critters in these woods, especially since there is a small creek that runs through it.  Just the night before this came out I was on a walk and stopped to listen to an owl sitting in the trees that are no longer there.  A big, majestic 100+ year old Oak is next along their march north.

If you'd like to see how rich and thick this area is/was look at the satellite view of the area in google -
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=dundee,+or&hl=en&ll=45.271819,-123.00544&spn=0.001046,0.002468&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=38.502405,80.859375&t=h&hnear=Dundee,+Yamhill+County,+Oregon&z=19

Beyond the environmental consideration, this stretch of woods would provide a sound barrier for the South East residents of Dundee.  I reached out to the Superintendent with ODOT to ask why these woods were being removed.  He replied, "for future facilities".

I checked the project map at their website and nothing is shown in this area.  I sent him the map, and asked, "Nothing is shown, can you tell me what is planned?".  He did not respond.

This is just one example of the inconsiderate treatment of the South side of Dundee.  I'll blog  more about the 200+, per day, double trailer rock haul trucks that drive past our homes and bus stops.  There is a long list of other issues like not providing people access to their property, unsafe driving by site employees, trespassing, gross misspending of public tax dollars, etc.