Family launches petition for guardrails after deadly Grain Valley crash

GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. — A Grain Valley family is calling for safety improvements after a deadly crash Wednesday on Jefferson Road. That crash happened on a hilly road that runs alongside Interstate 70.

Grain Valley’s mayor tells FOX4 it’s a potentially dangerous road that’s getting busier, and they want safety improvements, too.

Christian Lanear, 20, was driving from Blue Springs East into Grain Valley Wednesday afternoon around 4:15 p.m., on the elevated road along I-70.

“Whenever you have the highway right here and a ditch right here, an accident is going to happen. Your only two options are to hit that other vehicle or go into a ditch that leads to the highway,” Lanear’s cousin Steele Blackmon explained.

According to the Missouri Highway Patrol, when Lanear got too far to the right as a truck was approaching he overcorrected and crossed the center line. He collided with a Ford driven by Jacob Petree, a 29-year-old from Holt. Lanear was killed in the crash, and Petree received “moderate” injuries, according to MSHP.

“A very bright soul he always had a smile on his face, man, like always,” Blackmon said of Lanear.

Loved ones gathered at a cross placed in his honor Thursday alongside the road Grain Valley’s mayor says he’s been trying to get MoDOT to make safer.

“We’ve basically been saying it needs widened because our biggest fear was someone going off of Jefferson onto I-70,” Mayor Michael Todd said.

Within hours of Lanear’s death his family launched a change.org petition .

“When I tell you there were over 1,500 signatures in 45 minutes, that was amazing,” Blackmon said.

The petition calls for guard rails and shoulders alongside the road with hills, blind spots and steep drop offs to the interstate.

“Let’s say you don’t want to expand the road you put those guard rails there, you are still saving a ton of lives by doing that because you wont have that vehicle going down on that highway that’s going 60 miles per hour,” Blackmon said.

According to Mayor Todd, after several years of discussions MoDOT came to examine the road in the past year. He was in contact with a Missouri State representative Thursday to try to see what can be done.

“It’s tragic. It’s honestly really sad that it had to come to this to bring light to that for somebody to show this is a really dangerous road,” Blackmon said.

FOX4 asked MoDOT Thursday about general requirements for guardrails and any safety upgrades planned for Jefferson Road. A spokesperson for the agency said they’d look into it.

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