Cooper works to fix dangerous intersection

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

COOPER

An unusually high number of accidents at the convergence of Sparta Street and the bypass has one Tennessee lawmaker petitioning the state to fix the problem before someone is killed.

“There’s definitely something wrong out there,” said state Sen. Jerry Cooper, who met recently with state highway officials to look at the heavily traveled junction of major roads near Three Star Mall. “There’s been an unusually high number of wrecks in this area and watching the traffic, it’s easy to see why.”

The main problem with the area is where Sparta Street, the bypass, and the off-road from the bypass all intersect roughly in front of U.S. Auto Sales. The intersection has accounted for four personal injury accidents in the past three months.

U.S. Auto Sales owner Harold Martin said accidents there are nothing new.

“It’s been going on forever,” Martin said. “The problem is you have four lanes all running together out here and people are wanting to turn every which way and that causes a problem. I’m afraid someone is going to get killed if something isn’t done.”

Martin said highway officials have agreed there is a flaw with the convergence of roads, but, to this point, nothing has been done to alleviate the problem.

However, Sen. Cooper said he hopes by pointing out the numerous accidents in the area to highway officials, a plan can be formulated to fix the problem.