TDOT, the Tennessee Department of Transportation, has the perfect opportunity to save lives.
Flashing lights are desperately needed at both ends of the school zone in front of the entrance to the Copper Basin schools on Highway 68 – a state route.
The need has been talked about for years. Elected officials and politicians alike have made promises and some have worked diligently behind the scenes to make warning lights a reality.
The idea has been a long time in the talking stages. But now talking isn’t good enough and last Thursday proved it.
There has been one serious accident and countless close calls involving parents, students and the School Resource Officers who direct traffic, trying to make getting in and out of the road leading to the schools safer.
Last Thursday was too close. Karen Cribbs, a long-time member of the Copper Basin High School staff and mother of a student, saw the near-tragedy unfold right before her eyes.
She told how Polk County Deputy Sheriff/SRO Robbie Cole was trying to stop traffic so cars could leave the school. A woman came barreling through the intersection. Smoke filled the air from the brakes and tires as she tried to stop, the back end of the car almost hitting Cole. “She almost took him out,” Cribbs wrote in what she described as a rant on her Facebook page.
CBHS Principal Tim Kidd agrees something has to be done and done quickly. Cole saw the need firsthand.
Asking questions as to why lights haven’t already been installed, or what’s happening now toward that end, only bring answers in a flood of the “he said, she said” fashion. That’s not good enough.
No matter what has, hasn’t or is supposed to happen, TDOT holds the key to the solution – and the money.
Flashing lights on State Route 68 are needed now.
Getting them in place should not be that challenging. Have you ever seen a school zone without big, flashing yellow warning lights?
TDOT can move quickly and save lives or TDOT can sit on its hands and take one, because if someone dies at that intersection, TDOT should be first in line when it’s time to look at responsibility.