Campbell Tate: City should buy Bernarte house

Regarding the Sept. 10 news article “Six drivers have crashed onto his property. Now he wants solutions.”: I find it ridiculous that the city wouldn’t buy Carlo Bernarte’s property, even if measures like a guardrail are impossible. I hope the petition is successful.

Even so, we have guardrails on highways to prevent drivers from pitching themselves over gulleys, but we can’t put one in front of someone’s house to keep him safe because “it could prevent drivers on Fawn Glen Drive from seeing other traffic,” which I find confusing because guardrails aren’t that tall. It “could also lead to collisions ... if vehicles hit the guardrail and bounce backward into traffic”?

I like to think I understand the very real danger of drunk drivers, and making a bad situation worse is not a great goal. But when I get into my car, I’m accepting the hazards that come with driving, and that includes other drivers, drunk or not.

That guy isn’t even doing anything to invite this. Just living in his house, which he can’t sell, has made his family a victim of accidents they didn’t cause.

The idea that anyone should have to install hurricane-proof windows to block debris from flying into their windows is ridiculous.

This story was originally published October 6, 2016 at 9:38 AM with the headline "Campbell Tate: City should buy Bernarte house."