Aurora

Dangerous Aurora Intersection Needs Traffic Signal, Crash Survivors Say

Officials say with thousands of vehicles driving through a particular Aurora intersection each day accidents will happen. But some residents and crash survivors say it’s just too dangerous and something needs to be done.

Jessica Morelli, 24, is still recovering from her horrific Oct. 19 crash.

“I didn’t hear any horns or the sound of brakes, so, I didn’t even know we were getting hit," she recalled.

She and her husband Anthony left their new home off of Butterfield Road and DuPage Parkway around 7 p.m. That’s when their car was hit. The newlyweds had been had been married less than a month.

“It’s the first place we had together and now I can’t even be there," Morelli said.

The crash left her with a broken neck and arm. Her husband, who she finally got to see in the hospital Tuesday, suffered fractured ribs, a broken wrist, pelvis and internal bleeding requiring surgery.

John Erst is Morelli's father.

“It’s the worst nightmare any parent could expect and your brain goes a hundred miles an hour," he said. "And I remember what my father told me: ‘don’t worry about anything until they tell you there’s something to worry about.' Well, when I got there there was plenty to worry about and there still is.”

The posted speed limit is 50 miles per hour along the two-lane section of Butterfield between Eola and Farnsworth, but some say low visibility and excessive speed have resulted in far too many traffic accidents here.

According to data from the city of Aurora, last year there were 58 traffic crashes at Butterfield and Eola and 35 at Butterfield and Farnsworth.

Now, the Morelli family is calling for change. An online petition is demanding a traffic signal be installed to help prevent this from happening again.

“I hope they take our story and they put a stop light there to prevent this from happening to anyone else," Jessica Morelli said.

Because it's a state road the Illinois Department of Transportation would be the agency responsible for any changes.

A spokesman for IDOT says they are still looking into our questions about the intersection.

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