CLEVELAND, Tenn. Bradley County Sheriff Eric Watson has praised recent efforts by the Tennessee Department of Transportation to improve the safety of the intersection of Walker Valley Road and Lauderdale Memorial Highway.
The intersection, located in northern Bradley County and yards away from the Walker Valley High School traffic zone, received signage and pavement markings this month.
"The pavement markings and signage at Walker Valley Road and Lauderdale Highway is most certainly a wise and welcome start to easing that area, where some 16 accidents took place from the end of 2012 until late November," Watson said in a released statement.
Seven of those accidents involved injuries, said Watson.
It was a pair of those injury-causing accidents -- one of which required the intervention of a Life Force helicopter -- that spurred the Bradley County Commission to formally request assistance from TDOT in October. A smashed guardrail remains as a cautionary reminder of those accidents.
Watson and Rep. Dan Howell, R-Georgetown, held a news conference at the high school on Nov. 18 repeating the call for action.
The installation of the signage and pavement markings was the result of an on-site TDOT interview with a local business owner, who indicated that "almost all of the crashes" at the intersection were caused by northbound vehicles on Walker Valley Road failing to stop at Lauderdale Memorial Highway, said Jennifer Flynn, TDOT community relations officer.
The business owner also reported that "it's not unusual for them to see a dozen vehicles per day run that stop sign," said Flynn.
Poor driver judgment has been the cause of most of the intersection's accidents, Watson said at the news conference.
"If the information we received ... from the local business folks at the intersection was correct, these improvements should address the major issue causing crashes at this intersection," Alan Wolfe, regional traffic engineer with TDOT, said in November.
TDOT plans to schedule a roadway safety audit early next year for the intersection and for Lauderdale Memorial Highway as a whole, said Wolfe.
That audit will include transportation agency officials from Chattanooga and Nashville, said Flynn. Bradley County officials will be invited to attend the visit, she said.
Walker Valley High School and recent industrial developments along Lauderdale Memorial Highway have created demands that the highway was not intended to handle, said Watson.
Lauderdale Memorial Highway serves as a corridor connecting North Lee Highway to I-75 at Exit 33.
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.