Washington County family says intersection near high school is dangerous

CAMBRIDGE – If you’re driving sober and alert, there’s no reason why you should get into any trouble on Gilbert Street in Cambridge. So then why are so many drivers getting into trouble there?

Some of the crashes at Gilbert (State Route 313) and South Park Street (State Route 22) have occurred in broad daylight. An SUV was totaled in July 2021 when a 78-year-old driver “couldn’t find the brake,” ran through a stop sign heading west on Gilbert and slammed into a utility pole.

Another car recently ran the same stop sign in front of Peter Simoneau’s house and woke up the family.

“My wife was laying in bed, heard a big bang, and I pulled up our camera and sure enough, there was a car in the front yard of the school over there.”

The school Simoneau refers to is Cambridge High School, which sits directly across the street from his house.

We have a bad stretch of Gilbert Street that comes down into the intersection,” Simoneau said. “It’s posted at 40 (mph) but folks usually run at about 50 miles an hour. I don’t think the signage is very good for the stop.”

Simoneau says he won’t allow his three children to play in the front yard any more. He’s also concerned because Cambridge High School sits directly across the street, which means hundreds of kids are typically walking through the intersection daily.

“The worst case scenario would be to see a child get hit by a car or injured,” he said.

Simoneau says he’s talked with police a couple of times and they’ve been receptive and they’ve been monitoring the intersection. He also believes the accidents are likely to continue.

Simoneau isn’t holding out hope there’ll be change any time soon. He would like to think people who are in a position to do something about it are listening.