For Bill Hack, the scene Sunday morning was dà ©ja vu.

Outside his back window, near 15th Street and Bobwhite Drive, emergency workers were removing the body of a young man who had been driving too fast, missed a curve and hit an embankment.

The accident occurred almost exactly one year after a similar wreck. He said both accidents proved the city must do something to make the street safer.

âÂÂTheyâÂÂre identical accidents,â Hack said. âÂÂSomethingâÂÂs got to be done to keep these kids from treating this as a four-lane racetrack.âÂÂ

The latest accident happened at 1:13 a.m., just west of 15th Street and Bobwhite Drive, which is about 200 yards east of Corpus Christi Catholic Church.

Carol Ray Knisley III, 23, was driving a 2002 Acura RSX east on 15th Street when he lost control of his car on the curve, went off the south side of the road and hit an embankment, tree and fence. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

âÂÂWe are investigating excessive speed as a factor in the accident,â said Sgt. Mike Pattrick of the Lawrence Police Department. He declined to speculate on how fast Knisley may have been traveling.

Pattrick said there was no indication alcohol was a factor in the accident, though the investigation would determine that for certain.

Knisley, a native of Independence, was a former Kansas University student studying computer science but hadnâÂÂt been enrolled since fall 2001, a university spokesman said.

The crash was nearly identical to the Nov. 9, 2001, accident, which killed Chansanouk Sengchan, a 20-year-old KU student from Winfield. Pattrick said high speed and alcohol contributed to that accident, though he declined to say how fast Sengchan was traveling. The posted speed limit is 40 mph.

SengchanâÂÂs car – a 1996 Acura – landed about 50 feet east of SundayâÂÂs accident site. A makeshift memorial of a bowl, rose and champagne bottle still mark the site.

Hack said neighbors began discussing the roadâÂÂs safety after the first accident. Now, he said, theyâÂÂre going to take their complaints to the city.

âÂÂFortunately, as tragic as it is to have those kids lose their lives, they havenâÂÂt taken anyone else out with them,â Hack said. âÂÂOur biggest concern is one of these times, a westbound car is going to get right in front of them, and thereâÂÂs going to be a terrible tragedy. TheyâÂÂre going to wipe out a family of four in addition to themselves.âÂÂ

Hack said he wasnâÂÂt sure what would curtail speeding in the area. He suggested a traffic-calming device could make a difference.

But David Woosley, the cityâÂÂs traffic engineer, said the street probably wasnâÂÂt a good candidate for such a device.

âÂÂUsually you donâÂÂt put traffic-calming devices on arterial streets,â he said. âÂÂTheyâÂÂre usually reserved for local streets.âÂÂ

He said the city hadnâÂÂt received complaints about the road in the past. But Hack said he planned to call Woosley.

âÂÂTwo accidents – one a year – isnâÂÂt really a high number,â Woosley said. âÂÂIf we had a lot of vehicles running off the road, that would be different. Certainly if thereâÂÂs a problem it needs to be looked at, but you have to look at the circumstances of the crash – was the roadway the problem, or was the driver the problem?âÂÂ

Hack said he rarely saw police officers patrolling the area. Pattrick said police would consider watching speeders in the area more closely.

âÂÂIf the manpower exists, we could see if that would work,â he said. However, âÂÂwe canâÂÂt have police presence running radar in every part of the city.âÂÂ