My condolences to the family and friends of the mother and son who died on Frazier Avenue Saturday. I am sorry for your loss. Buildings can be repaired or replaced, lives are not so. I hope the man injured has good recovery.
I frequent that neighborhood at least twice a month, sometimes more. My time goes back a ways, it has changed a lot since I took Agnew Hardware down to bare walls to make space for those still there. This summer I parked on the southside of Frazier, east of Forrest Avenue, made my delivery, got in the car, waited for a break in traffic and watched a car drive by close enough to slam my driver side mirror aside with their right side mirror. Nothing was damaged, I had just a rapid heart rate so I drove home. The thing is I am an anomaly, I go over Veterans’ Bridge and Market Street Bridge and Frazier Avenue at the legal speed. I know people on both bridges need to get to the red light prior and they do and we all wait for green and go on.
But what I see every time I go to Frazier Avenue are a fair percentage of drivers that go by my parked car fast enough to shake it with their wind. This tragedy I am sorry to say was not a whether but a when.
So now that it has come and not quite gone, please, please, and words stronger, could our city, county and state make some sort of serious stride to calm the insane speeds people drive here. I drive elsewhere and traffics laws are enforced, in more than one place I visited as good as is done in Spencer, Tn.
This past week, I live near the Tennessee Highway Patrol office, I saw something that made me want to go thank the man for doing his job, but he was doing his job, actively as it were, stopping people for speeding on Cummings Highway. He got three or four in about 45 minutes. Thank you, trooper, good work. You could do that for several months and get the same outcome.
I’d appreciate more of that, the alive deer here would too, so would the folks who walk our sidewalks on the bridges and streets downtown. I am amazed at either the courage or foolery of people who walk the North Shore and the driven bridges. It all is a vibrant part of this community. I also know the sales tax income these crowds generate from that neighborhood. So it behooves those in care of public safety to make us slow down.
Prentice Hicks