Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Bill Howard was injured in a car wreck on Signal Mountain Boulevard the day before Thanksgiving.The day before Thanksgiving, a rush-hour fast lane is a stressful place to be.
Especially if you're lying in it.
That's how Bill Howard, 48, found himself on Signal Mountain Road, thrown from his 1989 Nissan Sentra, bleeding from his forehead and wondering how an average drive home from work turned into "very, very hard impact," he said.
Chattanooga police believe the car crash that left Howard with a slashed forehead, cracked ribs and a scarred liver was part of a greater epidemic.
"All his wreck did was reconfirm that we need to look at that area a little further," Chattanooga Police Department traffic division supervisor Sgt. Gary Martin said. "I can sit on the side of the road and run radar with my blue lights going and people will speed past me."
Police say the intersection of Signal Mountain Road and Mountain Creek Road is a "racetrack" that has at least one fatal wreck per year, mostly spurred by speed and alcohol.
But finding a spot to run radar is a "nightmare," Martin said, because both roads lack wide shoulders. New stoplights have helped, but the city is planning a speed van traffic study on both roads that might lead to permanent photo enforcement, he said.
"Speeds there have increased," Martin said. "The honest study would be to have the officer hide the van, but I promise you, he doesn't have to hide to get an honest study."
FEELING LUCKY
Howard survived his crash, but he's not sure how.
He said he was merging into the right lane for Mountain Creek Road when Larry Lawrence sped into Signal Mountain Road from the old Kmart parking lot. A security guard had just chased off Lawrence, a 45-year-old Signal Mountain resident who was yelling obscenities and "doing doughnuts" in the parking lot with his Lexus sedan, according to witness statements.
The Lexus struck Howard's car broadside and he was pitched out the driver's side door, he said during an interview last week at his Chattanooga home.
"Traffic was pretty heavy going both ways," he said. "I think the red light at the Burger King ... it must have caught some of the cars. I don't know why I didn't get run over."
Police documents said Howard wasn't wearing his seat belt, but he insisted he was.
Lawrence and the Lexus tumbled down an embankment and he broke five ribs, police records show.
A two-time DUI offender, Lawrence refused to comment on the crash, only saying he's "worried very much about Mr. Howard" and "extremely sorry about the wreck."
Police said Lawrence had been drinking. Lawrence neither confirmed nor denied alcohol use, but results of a blood test are pending.
"At 45, you'd figure somebody would have more sense than that," said Howard, who has missed two weeks of work at Norfolk Southern Railway as a result of his injuries.
ANOTHER STUDY
The police department's study isn't the first on the road.
In 2008, city traffic engineer John Van Winkle conducted eight speed studies on Signal Mountain Road, all between Baylor School and slightly north of the Mountain Creek Road intersection.
More than 27,000 vehicles hit that pavement every day. The speed limit is 45 mph, but 15 percent of those drivers go faster than 53 mph, according to city traffic data.
"We've done the studies and sent that information to the police department," Van Winkle said. "We've asked them to do enforcement. Ball's in their court now."