A deadly wrong-way crash took Frank Brown's daughter's life. After seeing a NewsChannel 5 report, Brown is joining a local fire chief to make sure it doesn't happen to someone else's child.
Brown wants to see spike strips installed on highway exit ramps and areas prone to wrong-way accidents.
His daughter, Lakesha Brown, was driving home from work on Interstate 71 when wrong-way driver Kenneth Urbanek crashed into her head-on, after swiping multiple cars. Both drivers died at the scene.
Frank Brown said it's been devastating and said he won't stand for anymore of what he calls 'preventable deaths.'
"It happened to another young lady a week later, my heart goes out to them, then it happened in Dayton, then in Cincinnati, one way driver killed four people," Brown said.
Brown saw NewsChannel 5's first story, with Solon Fire Battalion Chief Steve Nash. Now the men are working together.
"Steve Nash knows my story, from other families. This is something new to me that I don't want another family to have to go through," Brown said.
Nash also wants spike strips installed on highway ramps.
"If we could install some of these spikes in high risk areas, we could test it out, and see if these things are going to flatten tires before people get on going 60 miles per hour," Nash said.
Steve Nash told NewsChannel 5 he's reached out to politicians on the local, state, and federal levels about the idea and the feedback has been good.
"This is very much in the early stages, and there's definitely costs involved," he said.
He wasn't sure how much his proposal would cost, so we did some digging and got a quote from a reputable company that installs spike strips worldwide.
Three feet of one of a basic spike strip costs $795 dollars and end caps cost $295. Legally, minimum lane width is 12 feet, so it would cost about $2,700 to outfit one ramp.
Frank Brown said it's worth it.
"If it was your family member would there still be a price?"
