CLEARWATER, Fla. — Local road safety advocates are calling on the Clearwater City Commission to adopt the Safe Streets Pinellas Action Plan during their Thursday night meeting. 

The resolution asks city officials to put their resources towards creating safer roads for pedestrians and could help put them in a better position for state and federal funding to fix problem areas. 

Forward Pinellas, a group that works towards creating safer roads, says they were contacted by 15-year-old Ethan Weiser’s family after he was hit and killed on the way to the bus stop on Belleair Road last week. 

Weiser’s family wants changes made to the road to prevent this from happening to anyone else. 

Forward Pinellas Executive Director Whit Blanton says Belleair Road is a known problem area with no streetlights for long stretches. 

“There’s something going on with that roadway, I think it’s because Bellaeir and Nursery are parallel roads to busier roads that they tend to get congested,” Blanton said. “People use them sometimes as an alternate and they tend to see them as a faster route to avoid some of the congestion.” 

Ethan Weiser (Photo provided by family)

Belleair Road is maintained by Pinellas County. According to a spokesperson for the county, a traffic study was completed there in 2019. The road is classified as a minor arterial roadway, which makes it ineligible for a traffic light. 

The county has an improvement projected scheduled to start next year on Belleair Road and will include adding turn lanes and making safety changes, but a county spokesperson didn’t specify what those changes would be. 

Blanton called the system in which state and federal funding is obtained for roadways an unfortunate one. 

“I can’t even access safety funding from the state and federal government if we can’t show that there’s been fatalities or serious injuries there,” he said. “So if we’re trying to be proactive and solve a problem before it happens, it really takes planning and commitment at the local government level and local resources because the state dollars are spread all over the state, I’ve got to be able to show I’ve got a known problem.” 

Blanton says the Clearwater City Commission was receptive to the safer street resolution. He hopes it gets passed so the city can put more resources towards fixing dangerous roadways. 

A vigil for Ethan Weiser will be held at the crash site at 6:45 pm on Thursday.