Intersection has history of accidents

Julie Finley
DM Senior Staff writer

The car accident that claimed the life of Ole Miss student Artisa Cooley in January added to a long list of accidents at the intersection of West Jackson Avenue and Highway 6.

Statistics from the Public Safety Planning office in Jackson show 17 accidents at the intersection in 1998. While none were fatal, the accidents did injure 12 people.

In the first four months of 1999, 11 accidents occurred at the intersection. In just four months two people were killed and 13 injured as a result of these accidents.

Scott Swanson, staff sergeant for the Mississippi highway patrol feels that the number of accidents is due to the amount of traffic at the intersection.

"It's (the problem) an increase in traffic flow," he said. "And also it's the number of accidents is due to the amount of traffic at the intersection."

The speed limit on Highway 6 is 55; the red light at the intersection was an attempt to help the problem and slow the traffic down. Officials recently put in a strobe light to further alert drivers of the intersection. Problems occur when cars try to make a left turn across the intersection and oncoming traffic does not stop.

"That's been a dangerous intersection since I have worked for the highway patrol," Swanson said.

The 12 car accident injuries at the West Jackson, Highway 6 intersection in 1998 made up a large percentage of the overall injuries on county roads in Lafayette County that year. Sixty-two injuries due to automobile accidents occurred on the county roads of Lafayette County in 1998, while there were 56 on Oxford's city streets.

Automobile accidents on Lafayette County's highways also claimed eight lives in 1998.

The county ranked ninth in total number of crashes in a 1998 Mississippi Highway Patrol study done on counties with a population of at least 9,000.

The city of Oxford ranked seventh in number of accidents based on population in 1996. The ranking was an increase of six spots from the previous year.

Swanson attributes the number of accidents to the amount of traffic on the highways.

"It's the traffic volume and lack of manpower on our part because we can only be at one place at one time," he said. "We don't have enough men out there to slow people down."

He also believes the accidents are due to carelessness by drivers.

"A lot of people go through and don't pay any attention and take the attitude that nothing is going to happen to them, and the next thing you know we are calling a wrecker for them," Swanson said.

Other counties that consistently rank above Lafayette in number of car accidents are DeSoto and Tunica counties.