NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - Fatal Crash Prompts Demand for Road Improvements

Fatal Crash Prompts Demand for Road Improvements

by Brent Frazier

Wilson County, TENN. - The same weekend loved ones were burying 64-year-old Phillip Houston, homeowners along Bates Road vowed to launch a letter writing campaign to call attention to the road Houston was killed on Tuesday.

"Our mail lady was rear-ended right here, (while) stopping to put the mail in the box," Torrie Taylor said Saturday, standing at the end of the lengthy driveway she's traveled the last 14 years. "We've had people fly over the hill and lose control, if somebody was in the road and actually came through our yard."

Taylor and her husband, Richard Taylor, have watched countless crashes unfold as a once lowly traveled Bates Road has become a speedy shortcut for drivers traveling from Lebanon to Gallatin. Torrie also noted that traffic on the road has increased dramatically, since the development of three or four subdivisions directly behind her property.

Richard Taylor saw and heard Tuesday's early evening crash that took the life of Phllip Houston. Houston topped the hill in his westbound pickup truck, and rear ended a school bus that had stopped to let school children exit.

"We've actually been waiting for this (fatal accident) to happen for the last 14 years," said Richard Taylor. "We knew it was going to happen, we just didn't know when. I went over to the truck to see if I could help the man driving, and there was no chance of helping him. It was just too bad."

Houston's crash -- the first fatal accident the Taylors can recall -- has prompted the couple to demand safety improvements be made to Bates Road. Torrie Taylor suggests leveling the steep grade of the hill that, for westbound drivers, presents a real safety obstacle and is virtually undetectable until motorists are right up on it.

Mrs. Taylor also insists 45 m.p.h. is too fast for such a heavily residential street. The Taylors also suggest the State department of transportation install a flashing, caution light of some sort:   warning approaching motorists of the steep dropoff.

Victim Phillip Houston's wife of 41 years, Anne Houston, commended NewsChannel 5 for calling attention to the dangers of Bates Road. She said her husband was extraordinarily happy that day, having just purchased his dream RV. Ms. Houston told NewsChannel 5, the bus driver should have stopped either at the top of the hill, or at the bottom of the hill, instead of midway; though neighbors suggest that bus driver was following daily protocol.