Every time Tinley Park resident Donna LePinske hears a screeching sound she jumps up and runs to her window to see if her mailbox is still there.
She said she has replaced at least 40 mailboxes in her 50 years living along the 7600 block of West 167th Street, which is known for having a high rate of car crashes due to the curve of the road and speeding motorists, an issue LePinske said only continues to increase ever since her house was hit almost 40 years ago.
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The most recent car crash into her mailbox this month cost her $400, which insurance covered, she said. Another crash in 2020 caused a fire that destroyed one of her neighbor’s houses, and the homeowner of the now rebuilt house, Angelica Habas, said there have been five car crashes in her yard this year.
So when a car ended up flipped in Habas’ yard two weeks ago, LePinske said that was the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” and she, along with four other residents, demanded more permanent solutions Tuesday night at the Tinley Park Village Board meeting.
“I can’t keep affording all these mailboxes, and we don’t want our property to look raggedy, looking with mailboxes that are on a string,” LePinske said. “But when our grass keeps getting torn up like it is, it’s hard to keep up with it.”
Solutions proposed by residents included adding landscape barriers, signs with flashing lights on the road curve, a pedestrian walkway and other traffic calming measures recommended by an engineering expert.
Tinley Park Mayor Michael Glotz responded to the residents Tuesday night and said that adding speed bumps is “frowned upon” in the village. He said in the meantime, while officials order an engineering study on the road, there will be a larger police presence along the road, which the village initiated last week in response to the ongoing complaints.
Glotz also said officers could return to their original duties, instead of monitoring 167th street, once they get the speeding under control, as he hopes having a higher police presence on the road will discourage people from speeding.
He said that as of Monday, the total number of speeding tickets in Tinley have drastically increased since placing officers along 167th Street.
“I mean the amount of people that are getting pulled over now is actually ridiculous,” Glotz said. “If the amount of officers we put on it isn’t enough, we’ll just keep increasing it until they slow down because it is absolutely ridiculous.”
Tinley Park police Chief Thomas Tilton said his command staff and shift sergeants are “attacking the problem very aggressively.”
While residents said they’re thankful for the police department’s work monitoring the road, that solution is not drastic enough, they argued, and they do not want to wait until another major accident or injury happens.
“Our goal is to be for prevention,” 167th Street resident Kelly Dostalova said. “This issue directly impacts the safety of our families and everyone who travels on 167th Street.”
Tinley Park Trustee Ken Shaw supported the residents’ statements that reassigning officers is only effective in the short term.
Shaw said it’s human nature to speed on a big wide road, and when officers aren’t there, people will start speeding again.
Shaw said the road design is the issue, and he said he supports giving the wide four-lane curving road a thinner design to slow the traffic through physical barriers such as guardrails.
Along with the residents, Shaw supported an engineering study on the road, which Shaw said is an investment, but one that would be worth it.