Regarding "Council rejects permit for new high school" (Jan. 18 Journal), the shortsighted plan for the location of a new Wentzville high school on Sommers Road in O'Fallon is a recipe for disaster.

Unleashing crowds of teen drivers — generally unleashed from a seat belt, yet perhaps buckled to a cell phone — onto Highway DD at Sommers Road will result in more serious traffic accidents, broadside traffic collisions for the end of the school day.

Aside from the neighbors' objections to a nearby high school, and the decline of their property, the forgotten topic is huge risk. Parents of these inexperienced drivers — and parent drivers — ought to know about the "gauntlet," also known as Sommers Road and Highway DD. Already there are several flowered memorials on DD, marking the site of several fatal accidents.

Imagine a bloated Sommers Road, packed end-to-end at 3 p.m. — from the high school to DD — pushing out a single lane of energized students toward the choke point at DD. A left turn from a dead stop at DD gets them to O'Fallon, or turn right toward Defiance. However, to turn left — which the majority will do — you've got to carefully watch for approaching DD traffic hidden by a nearby road crest.

Will my child get T-boned by a Highway DD motorist driving 50 miles per hour? Will it be your child and classmates who jumped the stop sign at Sommers Road and failed to notice the 50-mph driver cresting the hill? While this risk might seem mitigated by any idea of a traffic signal, at this dangerous gauntlet that's an illusion.

Common sense — the least common of all senses — certainly could apply to young drivers, yet one would hope the school district adults involved in this planning would get it, would understand the risk. Having said that, should the district ignore the risk, then DD can be further memorialized, on the school district's behalf, as "dumb and dumber."

Patrick Meister, Defiance