Published: November 03, 2008 11:09 am         

Letters to the Editor

Readers write and e-mail

Drivers and bad intersections cause wrecks

Dear Editor,

This letter is in response to last week’s letter (Oct. 26) by Larry Moss, which was in response to my letter (Oct. 12) concerning the need for traffic signal lights at the intersection of Martin Luther King Street and S.E. 25th Avenue. He stated that, “People cause wrecks, not intersections.”

I agree 100 percent.

Now I give you the rest of the story.

There are two lanes heading east on S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Street. If you want to go straight across S.E. 25th Avenue and head east on South Murco Drive, you must stay in the left lane.

And if you intend to turn right onto S.E. 25th Avenue you must be in the right lane.

Anyone who feels that that intersection is dangerous even to attentive drivers, I challenge you to hop in a small truck such as my S-10, or a car, and head east on S.E. Martin Luther King Street in either lane and stop at the stop sign located at S.E. 25th Avenue, particularly in the early morning while parents are rushing to get the kids to school and others are heading to work. Regardless of where they are heading they all seem to be in a hurry. The same is true in the late afternoon and early evening.

I’m quite sure that with the amount of traffic and because you are in a small vehicle you will find that most of the time a larger vehicle will pull along side of you in the next lane immediately after they come to a full stop at the intersection, blocking your view of oncoming traffic in that direction. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in the left or right lane, your view to that side will be blocked.

If you clearly saw before they stopped there was enough time to go for it and now finds your view is obscured by a vehicle that has pulled up even with you, and you are a gambling person, you might throw all in and stomp on the gas and hope you win this hand.

Or perhaps you are a conservative person who decides to wait until you have a clear view of traffic in both directions. Well, if the driver next to you is impatient or inconsiderate, they might inch forward even more and totally block the view.

And then all of a sudden they hit the gas and burn rubber as they turn onto S.E. 25th Avenue. You hesitate, then stomp on the gas, but quickly discover it’s too late as a car is coming toward you in that lane. You put the gear selector in reverse and notice that when you pulled forward, so did the other seven vehicles behind you. But the oncoming car swerves a little bit over the line and nonchalantly passes you. You make your turn and say a little prayer of thanks as you continue on his way.

It is now 5:30 p.m. and once again you find yourself rolling to a stop at the same intersection, this time however the vehicle that stops beside you is about the same size as yours. You glance to the right and see that it’s clear. You look to the left and can see through the other vehicle’s windows that it is also clear and go straight on across to South Murco without any problems.

The next morning you once again find yourself sitting at the intersection and the car beside you inches forward to get a better view past your vehicle. You are in a hurry and was there first, so you inch forward, cutting off the view of the other driver. You look right and it’s clear of traffic, but when you look to the left you discovers the other vehicle has once again inched forward and now you can’t see, and here comes a car down S.E. 25th Avenue to your right, followed by two trucks and a motorcycle and seven vehicles pass in front of you coming from the left, then there are five more coming from the right, etc.

As the vehicle in the lane to your left pulls out to cross the intersection, you figure that it’s clear so you turn right and wish there was a light at this intersection, as it’s pretty usually frustrating trying to cross or turn onto S.E. 25th Avenue.

Then one morning with a young mother and one a child in your car you sit at South Murco facing west, waiting for a chance to safely cross S.E. 25th Avenue, when a car in the right lane on S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, facing east, pulls out in front of a truck going 30 mph and is hit by the truck at the driver’s side door and the car is shoved about 40 feet and the force of the impact turns it a full 180 degrees before both vehicles slide to a stop.

The young woman in your vehicle is visibly shaken by witnessing the accident, and the sound of the impact scared the child beyond measure.

A traffic signal might have very well prevented this accident, which was caused by a driver, and not the intersection, but because of the visibility issues at the intersection there is a greater chance of drivers trying to cross S.E. 25 Avenue or attempting to turn onto it from S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Street to become involved in an accident.

The encounters described above are all fiction of course, except for the accident, with me being behind the wheel and witnessing the accident while going to drop off a friend’s child at school.

But I think I can safely assume that many citizens of this city have encountered situations similar to those I wrote about many times if they stop at that intersection and are on S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Street facing east waiting to turn left or right or go straight across.

I learned Thursday there have been 42 accidents at that intersection in the last five years. I also learned that there are several city officials concerned about the intersection and that they have been discussing the safety and visibility issues at that intersection.

I hope that there will be lights installed there in the near future.

Sincerely,

Charles Aaron Tirrell, Mineral Wells