Published: November 12, 2009 11:20 am      

Signals installed at deadly intersection

After several fatal accidents and a local campaign, change is evident this week at KY 192 and the Hal Rogers Parkway.

Motorists traveling near that intersection may see some delays this week as new signals are being installed.

State highway crews worked from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. They will be out again Thursday and Friday at the same times.

All work is scheduled on a tentative basis and is subject to change depending on weather conditions, emergencies and other factors beyond the control of the Department of Highways, said Jonathan Dobson, public affairs officer with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in Manchester. Dobson said he wasn’t sure when the signals will be activated.

After the death of Annville teen Aaron Snider at the intersection last January and other serious accidents over the years, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet approved the installation of the signals last spring.

Work began last May with Davis H. Elliott Contractors of Lexington constructing the forms for the concrete pads that hold the utility poles for the wires for the lights.

Local officials lobbied for the lights because they said they were long overdue.

Laurel County Judge-Executive Lawrence Kuhl met with state transportation officials, after Snider’s fatal accident, in an effort to get the traffic signals installed.

Kuhl said at the time, he met with Tom Napier, the district engineer and Joseph Prather, the secretary of transportation, about the intersection.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet formed a new committee charged with examining fatal wrecks on Kentucky’s roadways to improve road conditions.

The committee includes officials from the transportation cabinet, law enforcement, emergency services, Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center and the University of Kentucky Transportation Center.

“The formation of this committee, and the spirit in which everyone has come to the table proves that we can all work together to systematically determine specific challenges and work together to improve the safety of our roadways and continue the decline in fatalities,” Prather said earlier.

Laurel County Clerk Dean Johnson, who owns property that runs up to the parkway near the intersection, took an active roll in trying to get the traffic signals.

“I understand this (Snider’s wreck) is the seventh person killed there since the bypass was constructed,” Johnson said earlier. “There are accidents there monthly. Something needs to be done.”

County officials in Clay, Jackson and Laurel counties, including Johnson and Kuhl, collected more than 2,000 signatures asking the state to install the traffic signals.

About two weeks after Snider’s fatal wreck, transportation officials from the Manchester office were at the intersection counting vehicles in what was described as the first step in the process to determine if a traffic light is warranted.

“The decision has been made to install a signal at that place after the highway district down there did a study of the traffic at that location and determined that a signal was justified,” said Chuck Wolf with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in Frankfort in a previous interview.

Staff writer Carol Mills can be reached at cmills@sentinel-echo.com.