Widow wants changes to a Fort Bragg road

HOKE COUNTY Caroline Nicol lost her husband when authorities say a speeding driver slammed head-on into his vehicle on Plank Road.

Two crosses mark the spot where Master Sergeant Nic Nicol died instantly on December 7, 2009.

"Nobody should have to feel the way I do, because somebody was careless," Nicol said. "And there's nobody out there stopping them."

The retired Special Forces soldier's widow says according to police reports, the woman who hit her husband head-on was speeding.

"She would have been going at almost 87 miles an hour," Nicol said.

Plank Road is notorious for speeding and dangerous passing, which can be a deadly combination.

"It's an everyday occurrence ... almost that they are passed on solid yellow lines ... people going up hills around curves," Nicol said. "I mean, I've been passed on double yellow line and I'm praying sometimes like, 'Oh God, please don't let anyone be coming over the other side.'"

"But when you end up going at a high speed over 70 miles an hour, you couple that with the rolling terrain that this road goes in … and then you turn into military convoys that when you crest that hill they're moving at much slower rate of speed ... that becomes unsafe," Fort Bragg Spokesman Tom McCullom said.

Fort Bragg leaders say the road is perfectly safe if driven at the posted 55 mph limit. But McCollum says the Army is taking action to slow drivers down.

"We've been increasing our patrols on it, but it's just like everything else, we have so many assets that you can spread throughout," McCullom said.

Currently, military patrols are used in the highly populated Garrison area of Fort Bragg. However, the Army tells ABC11 Eyewitness News that they plan to step up speed traps and patrols on Plank Road in the coming weeks.

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