It’s happened about once a year for the past four years.

Cars miss a turn on Murphy Road between the Bend Parkway and Brookswood Boulevard and crash through a wooden fence along Mike Condino’s property.

Two vehicles were totaled. Once, a rock pile in the backyard stopped a vehicle from destroying Condino’s shed. “This last person made it 40 -plus feet onto the property in their vehicle,” said Condino, who rents the property. “They were coming through with such speed it threw fence boards 50 -plus feet.”

City transportation officials are aware of the issue at the Murphy Road turn. They installed a small warning sign and plan to add reflectors to the area.

Still, Condino, a cannabis farmer who moved to Grants Pass in 2018, said he is worried about the tenants in his home on Dovewood Place, where Condino had lived since 2011. The family has children and a dog that could be in danger from another accident.

Condino suspects most of the drivers are speeding in the 30 mph zone on Murphy Road and don’t realize they are driving through a neighborhood in southwest Bend.

“It’s a long, dark, straight road, so it makes it feel like the speed is much faster than it is,” Condino said. “Then you get to a turn and people just slide through. It’s extremely dangerous.”

The problem started after Murphy Road was extended to Brookswood Boulevard in 2015, and the new road passed behind Condino’s house. The first major crash occurred in October 2017: A Volkswagen Jetta was totaled when it struck a telephone pole next to Condino’s fence.

Since his tenants arrived in Aug. 1, 2018, three more vehicles broke through the fence. The most recent was Jan. 30, when a Nissan Armada SUV just missed Condino’s shed.

To help drivers coming from the parkway, the city of Bend installed a warning sign before the turn on Murphy Road last year. Condino appreciates the sign but believes the area needs a larger speed-reduction sign and other warning signals, especially since the recent crash. “It’s a tiny, little warning sign that doesn’t give you any information about how severe the curve actually is,” Condino said. “It would be so easy to miss that or assume it’s telling you a curve is coming. Not a 90-degree turn with a very tight radius.”

Janet Hruby, a transportation engineer in the city of Bend’s transportation and mobility department, said the city regularly responds to safety concerns from residents through a citizen service request process online or over the phone.

“Even if there is one crash that is off the road like that, we will take a look and see if there is something that we can do,” Hruby said.

In this case, city staff visited the Murphy Road site several times. Due to the recent crash, staff ordered reflectors that should be installed in two to three weeks, Hruby said.

“This will help narrow the field of vision of the drivers and give them another indicator to slow down,” Hruby said.

Hruby said this particular location gets slippery and icy because it does not get much sunlight during the day. Slick road conditions may have caused some of the crashes, she said.

“People need to watch their speed through that section particularly on winter days,” Hruby said.

Condino hopes the city’s measures and more awareness will prevent future crashes. In the meantime, the fence has a large hole from the last crash that is temporarily covered with metal mesh.

Condino plans to put out three concrete barriers to protect his fence and the family living in his house.

“My short-term solution is I’m going to place Jersey barriers in the danger zone so the kids and dogs that live at my house are not killed by a reckless driver,” Condino said. “And they are not even that reckless. People just go through that fence.”