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July 21, 2010

What a person needs to do at FM 1616 is not rocket science

Robby Robertson The Athens Review

ATHENS — Over the past several weeks there have been a couple of wrecks at the Farm-to-Market 1616 and Loop 7 intersection. I just don’t understand it. How can you have a wreck at an intersection that is plenty wide, with warning signs all around it?

The reason is, people do not wait on traffic. They think they can beat whoever is coming from either direction. Let me repeat my previous statement. THE INTERSECTION IS WIDE!

Every wreck that I have been to at that site was the fault of someone pulling out to try and beat the traffic. It’s not because a car stalled or because someone blindsided them, it’s because someone was not thinking clearly, and thought they could beat the traffic.

I have watched people pull up to the 4-way stop, watch the car in front of them cross to the median intersection that is made for one car, and make the short-sighted decision that they will cross over there. What this does is make the second person have to angle their car to the right-rear fender of the front car, so their rear end won’t be sticking out in the highway.

If you are in that much of a hurry that you need to endanger yourself and someone else, you need to leave earlier. I have also watched people see a car coming, and shoot across the intersection, thinking they can beat it.

That’s just not the thing to do!

Most of the time they do beat it, but when I am going the speed limit, and I have to slam on my brakes because someone made the stupid decision to try and beat me, you deserve to be hit.

I do not believe in road rage, and I do my best to watch everyone around me, but come on, these people who day-after-day continue to endanger lives because they are impatient, need to get off the road.

I have also heard some people lately talk about how there needs to be an overpass at that intersection. I disagree. That intersection is as safe as any other. It’s plenty wide enough. There are caution markers for traffic coming onto the loop from Highway 31 for them to slow down. There are flashing red lights, and a huge stop sign. What else do you need?

PATIENCE!

The cost of putting an overpass there would be astronomical, and I don’t blame TxDot for not wanting to do it. Some people have called into our office, and said there shouldn’t be any reason they couldn’t build one at 1616 and the loop, if they are building two bridges in Caney City on Highway 198.

The difference is, some of that money, if not all of it, came from private donations to build those bridges. The water levels were too high, and people around the lake could not get their boats under the bridges to go around Cedar Creek Lake.

Some thought that the Murchison Foundation should have put up the money for the bridge at 1616 because that is the spot where Ginger Murchison had her accident. I disagree again.

People need to slow down. It’s not rocket science. You come to the intersection, look both ways, wait on traffic. If you are in the clear, cross over to the median, but DO NOT cross over if there is another car sitting there, or a truck with a trailer. You are just asking for trouble.

And, the last thing I’ll remind you about before I get off my soap box is road construction. All over Athens they have been doing road construction, and re-paving the roads. We all know they do this in the summer when it is hot.

SLOW DOWN!

You know there is going to be loose gravel, and it will fly up and hit, not only the side or hood of your car, but crack your glass.

Just slow to a crawl while you are in that work zone, and you won’t have to replace your windshield, or that of someone else.

Robby Robertson is a Staff Writer with the Athens Daily Review.

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