By John Howell Sr.

Aldermen moved quickly following the truck car accident at the Highway 51/Tiger Drive intersection Tuesday.

During their Wednesday budget meeting Alderman Bill Dugger requested that the city send a letter over the mayor’s signature requesting the Mississippi Department of Transportation restudy traffic flow at the intersection to determine if a stop signal can be placed there.
“We need to be as pushy as we can in a respectful way,” Dugger said of the language chosen for the letter.

City police officers are stationed at the Highway 51/Tiger Drive intersection and the Highway 51/Watt Street intersection each school day morning and afternoon to direct the heavy flow of school and business traffic. The school traffic includes pedestrians.

“They’re in a position of not being real safe themselves,” one city official said, referring to the officers having to stand in the middle of the traffic flow.

We agree. From our vantage point at the Watt Street intersection, we’ve seen many wrecks that included close calls for the officers standing in the highway. So far, we’ve been fortunate.

With traffic signals now capable of being programmed to conform to the intricacies of traffic flow and ebb, there must be a use a stoplight (or stoplights) to make these intersections safer.