COLLIERVILLE, TN (abc24.com) - After a teen lost her life on Collierville-Arlington Road, a Collierville man is launching a new campaign to change speed laws on the dangerous road.
17-year-old Courtney Sheffield was killed Wednesday, May 30, when the Tennessee High Patrol says she rolled through a stop sign and turned in front of a dump truck.
According to Collierville resident, Clint Walker, in just four years both Macon and Collierville-Arlington Roads combined have claimed seven lives.
Walker didn't know Courtney Sheffield, he only knows there should never be skid marks on Collierville-Arlington again. "I've been here four years; there's been seven deaths on Macon to Houston Levee and on Collierville-Arlington." Walker says, "They've got to slow these cars down."
According to the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, Sheffield was hit on the passenger side and forced into a utility pole. She was pronounced dead at the scene. SCSO spokesperson, Chip Washington says, "She was not using a cell phone, it was in the console and she was wearing a seat belt. It's just a very unfortunate set of circumstances and it raises all of our awareness that these roadways are extremely dangerous, all of them."
That's what Walker's been saying for years. Two years ago he started a campaign, and says he wrote 100 letters asking for the 45 mile per hour speed limit on Macon and Collierville-Arlington to be reduced to 40, and 35 for loaded trucks. He says he sent the letters to State Senator Mark Norris. "[Trucks] fly through here, I can't pull out of my driveway," Walker says, "These guys are loaded trucks full of dirt, I wonder how good their brakes are. We have 200-300 of these a day."
Walker says Norris hasn't done anything, but the senator told abc24.com he had signs put up warning people about curves, and he also had shoulders expanded. Thursday morning, Norris spoke with the County Mayor and asked the Public Works Department and the Department of Safety to re-examine the road.
As long as lives like Sheffield's continue to get cut short, Walker says he will campaign. "They need to slow it down and save lives. That was a tragedy and my prayers go out to the family."
Norris says the completion of 385 will answer most of the problems. It will get the dump trucks off those roads and re-route most of the traffic.
Sheriff's Deputies have had a strong presence there, writing more than 400 speeding tickets in the area since January 2011.
