WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — Safety concerns along Highway 70 in Wilson County pushed one family to uproot their lives after nearly 30 years. Chris and Jennifer Fryer recently moved to a quiet countryside home, where they now see more farm animals than cars.
“I get excited when I see a car out here — I’m like waving hi!” Jennifer said.
It’s a dramatic shift from their former home off Highway 70 near Cooks Lane. The Fryers said the stretch outside their driveway became increasingly dangerous.
“Our neighbors’ mailboxes get knocked down, ran over — even a telephone pole was ran over,” Chris said. “People just come off that hill, the four lanes, and they’re going 75 miles an hour. Then it bottlenecks, and there’s no time to react and get out of people’s way.”
They said getting in and out of their own driveway became a daily struggle, and crashes routinely caused traffic to back up for miles. The Fryers were also involved in a serious wreck while trying to pull in.
“A car came up and hit us from behind — a big SUV — and it totaled our car. And we had all our kids, all three boys, in the car.”
The couple hoped the state would make improvements to the highway and believed widening the road could ease some of the dangers. For them, the issue is also personal: Jennifer lost her sister in a car crash nearly a decade ago.
“It’s been 10 years, but seems like yesterday,” she said. “My stress level is less now, but I’ve got a big heart and I want everyone to feel safe and not as stressed driving that road.”
Even though they have moved away, the Fryers say their safety concerns remain.
“We hope that this story saves one life — one phone call that somebody doesn’t have to get that someone had been hurt or killed on that road.”
When a neighbor reached out to NewsChannel 5's Aaron Cantrell about these concerns, he contacted the Tennessee Department of Transportation for answers.
TDOT Response
In a statement, a TDOT spokesperson said this stretch of Highway 70 is not included in the department’s current 10-Year Plan, which guides major transportation projects across the state. TDOT also reviewed the area for Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funding, but it did not qualify at this time.
The spokesperson noted that widening the road is still a possibility. The segment has been studied before and is considered a candidate for future capacity improvements, though it is not currently scheduled.
TDOT said there are several proposed developments along the corridor, and the agency is working with local governments to discuss potential safety enhancements, including turn lanes or traffic signals, as those projects move forward.
According to the department, a project must meet several criteria before it can be added to the 10-Year Plan. Those include the community’s needs, safety benefits, cost, environmental impacts, and whether the project is realistically deliverable. TDOT reevaluates those priorities every year.
This story was reported by reporter Aaron Cantrell and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Aaron and our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy
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