Deadly crash at high-risk South Nashville intersection renews focus on traffic safety

Yahoo

01-07-2025

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A deadly crash at a busy South Nashville intersection has put a spotlight on a known trouble spot.
The Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure has already flagged the intersection merging Thompson, East Thompson Lane and Briley Parkway as part of the city's high-injury network. It's known to many in surrounding neighborhoods for speed and dangerous drivers.
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'I've been driving the neighborhood for over a decade now, and that intersection is super scary,' Glancliff resident Rebecca Rabon told News 2, adding that she drives carefully through the area.
Over the last decade, NDOT records showed that there have been 528 crashes at this intersection. Of those crashes, 393 resulted in property damage while four caused serious injuries. Prior to this weekend, just one crash there had been deadly.
However, that changed on Sunday.
The Metro Nashville Police Department said a 47-year-old Watertown man driving a pickup truck ran a red light, crashing into a car entering on a green light. The MNPD said he wasn't wearing a seat belt and died after he was thrown from his truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
It's the type of tragedy Rabon has worried about for years.
'I immediately thought, 'Somebody probably ran the light,' because that is just what happens,' Rabon said.
The Metro Councilmember for the area, Ginny Welsch, told News 2 that drivers are not the only ones at risk.
'So many of the people that we see getting injured at a lot of these intersections across Nashville are people who are working on the corners or panhandling,' Welsch said.
Though there is a pilot program underway on East Thompson Lane to slow traffic, Rabon said that enforcement needs to go further.
'If we had people getting pulled for speeding, people getting pulled for running red lights, real consequences for people driving without insurance — things like that, I think, are necessary,' Rabon said.
Welsch told News 2 that this spot is included in the city's Vision Zero plan, and potential long-term changes are on the horizon.
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'For example, the smart lights — we will be able to watch, in real time, many of these intersections to see where problems are happening, where backups are happening, and situations are happening that we know might lead to people making more risky behaviors so we can change the length of lights.'
However, she added that no amount of technology can replace wise choices behind the wheel.
'Your life is not worth that risk of that extra minute and a half to make it through that light,' Welsch concluded.
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