TXDOT to add stop signs at Hwy. 59 intersections

By Jessica Coleman
Staff Writer
    Kevin Williams sat on his sofa with his trusty rescue dog Terry by his side, recounting the multitudes of accidents and near misses he has witnessed in the seven years he has lived on Pear Street in Edna. 
    “It seems like on a daily basis you see near wrecks,” he said, “Every single day.”
    The problem, says Williams, is that the intersection where he lives, where FM 822 meets U.S. Hwy 59, and the next one over where U.S. 59 meets East St., are not four-way stops, but should be. Drivers tend to stop at their stop sign, assume cross traffic will stop too, and then collide in the intersection when it doesn’t.
    One accident in particular quite literally hit close to home.
    “I was mowing my yard and I heard a loud crash,” said Williams, “I looked up and there was a car spinning toward my telephone pole right here in my yard.” 
    At that moment, Kevin Williams decided it was time to take action. He sent an email to Texas Department of Transportation and asked them to put in a stop sign. Shortly after that request, an accident happened at a similar intersection a block away, at 59 and East, and Williams put in a request for that one, too. 
    TXDOT, after conducting a traffic study and consulting with the City of Edna, agreed with Williams. Those intersections, as they sat, were unsafe. 
    The new stop signs should help alleviate Williams’ concerns and make the intersections safer, according to Cari Hensley, Public Information Officer for TXDOT out of Yoakum. 
    “The traffic that goes under 59 now doesn’t stop,” said Hensley on Sept. 22, “Tuesday, traffic traveling east to west will have to stop on both sides of 59. Both sides of 59 will be all-way stops at East St., and at 822.”
    Williams, and many residents of Edna have expressed relief at the installation of the stop signs that were slated to go up on  Sept. 27.