By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Norman Rose’s heart began racing as soon as he heard about a Thursday morning accident in the Auburn Plains Cemetery.

The woman involved in the accident, 18-year-old Cassea Leavitt, suffered minor injuries when she lost control of her car, smashed into the guardrail along Route 4 and flipped into the cemetery.

Rose, of 1215 Turner St., was just as concerned about the plight of the grave site.

He visited the cemetery to check for damage Thursday and then had to be taken to the emergency room. The 72-year-old man, who suffers from a chronic heart condition, had such a fast heartbeat the nurse couldn’t get an accurate pulse.

“Nobody seems to care about that cemetery any more,” Rose said. “That’s why I get as upset as I do.”

Just a few feet from the speeding cars of Route 4 and protected by a lone guardrail, the century-old cemetery seems to be the perfect spot for traffic accidents.

“It’s a long, straight stretch but there’s enough of a curve that people just run right into it,” Rose said. “Then, there’s nobody to take care of it. I think that’s what bothers me the most. Only a handful of people living still care about that cemetery and what happens to it.”

The cemetery was plotted some time in the 1800s. Rose estimated there are some 200 early Auburn residents buried there – about a dozen of them are his direct ancestors.

“My father’s side, it goes back to the Roses, the Walkers and the Leavitts,” he said. “They’re all in there. On my mother’s side, my great-great-grandparents are there. Plus, there’s a Civil War soldier who died in East Auburn. He’s supposed to be some distant relative.”

Only a few people still make regular visits to the roadside cemetery. Rose could name two other residents that visit on holidays, putting flowers on the stones and checking for damage. He used to mow the lawn there regularly, whenever it needed it.

“I did it so often, the city didn’t have to,” he said. “But now, I’m going to be 73 in a couple of months. I’m not mowing much of anything.”

This week’s car crash did not topple any of the marble and granite stones that mark the graves. That was a small blessing, Rose said.

“There was one monument stone that stuck up about 8 inches and she knocked it sideways a little bit,” Rose said. “One of the rescue crews stepped on it and pushed it right back into the ground.”

The cemetery doesn’t always fare so well, however. Rose said it seems that cars are regularly careening off of the road into the middle of the burial ground.

“Some of the markers are granite, but many are marble and that’s a good deal more fragile than granite,” he said. “They’ve weathered over the years and gotten thinner. They’re much easier to break and really cannot be replaced.”

Eight crashes

The cemetery does see its share of accidents, according to Auburn police Lt. James Robicheau. He said there have been eight accidents involving the cemetery or its guardrail since April 2002. That includes one fatality: Stephanie Collins was killed in July 2002 when she lost control of her car on the road.

“Most accidents there are fatigue- or alcohol-related,” Robicheau said. The part of Route 4 south of the cemetery is mostly straight. It narrows and curves slightly just before the cemetery, leading unaware drivers to a wreck.

“And then there’s speed,” he said. Police routinely catch drivers going as fast as 70 mph.

“But there’s not much else we can do there,” Robicheau said. Putting up a bigger guardrail could make accidents more deadly, and the cemetery can’t be moved.

Rose wishes drivers would simply be more cautious.

“I’d be a lot happier if someone did something to slow things down around there,” Rose said.