ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Two months after a 16-year-old Oak Ridge High School student was struck and killed while trying to cross Oak Ridge Road, the commissioner who represents the area said she is still working to address concerns about speeding.
“We’re going to make sure and do anything in the name of that young lady who did lose her life that it won’t happen to anyone else,” Commissioner Mayra Uribe said.
Uribe, who graduated from Oak Ridge High School, has been advocating for proper signs and speed cameras to serve as a deterrent for speeding drivers.
[Watch video below to learn what safety steps the county is looking at]
“We have a problem,” said Michael Houle, who lives off Oak Ridge Road. “And we need a resolution. We need help.”
Houle has lived in the area for nearly 30 years and has long been worried about what he perceives as a lack of adequate traffic calming measures.
“I’ve had too many occasions where kids are standing in the middle of the road waiting for traffic, where I’ve almost run into them myself,” he said.
His concerns are now heightened, as one of his grandchildren prepares to attend Oak Ridge High School.
“I don’t want to see anybody hurt,” Houle said. “Especially the children.”
Urbe told News 6 Thursday evening that she learned a new speed study is set to begin in the Fall, when classes resume. She said she hopes the study will result in a reduction to the speed limit from 45 miles per hour, as well as the implementation of signs and speed cameras.
“I had hoped that (the study) would happen before the next school year,” Uribe said. “But it is a process, unfortunately — not one that I’m excited about — but it is.”
Uribe’s office sent News 6 a spreadsheet displaying the number of accidents outside schools in Orange County. As of March 2025, there were 33 accidents over the past five years, according to the spreadsheet.
When News 6 was outside Oak Ridge High School, we noticed what appeared to be a downed pole with a digital sign that read “SLOW DOWN.” The pole also had a sign alerting drivers that they were about to approach a school entrance.
“I’m angry,” Uribe said when asked about the pole that was on its side. “I’m very upset that that’s going on in our neighborhood, and it hasn’t been fixed.”
Uribe said she did not know about it until News 6 sent her a picture. She then sent a message to the county’s Public Works Department. She later told News 6 in a text that “a crew is being sent out for the sign immediately.”