Jefferson City residents ask for changes to intersection after recent crash

Residents in a Jefferson City neighborhood asked the city council to make changes to an intersection after many close calls.

Currently, there is only yield signs on two corners of the intersection of Sherwood and Fairway, just off Country Club Drive.

After a recent crash where a driver failed to yield, some residents went before the city’s Transportation and Traffic Commission to request replacing the yield signs with stop signs.

“Some people do go speeding by, and if there was somebody coming I’m not sure that they’d be able to stop,” resident Taube Wurst told ABC 17 News.

LindaOligschlaeger has lived on Sherwood Drive for more than 20 years.

“People cross and they think they don’t have to stop, and you know, there have been a lot of near-misses there too,” Oligschlaeger said.

Oligschlaeger told ABC 17 News she witnessed the recent crash and has seen many other close calls at the intersection.

“What we typically do just in general in residential subdivisions, we try to use the least traffic controls that people will accept,” Jefferson City Public Works Director Matt Morasch said. “And so right now they’re yield signs.”

After residents went to the Transportation and Traffic Commission, the commission conducted a small traffic study.

“They looked at the number of cars traveling through the intersection, looked at the crash data,” Morasch said. “And then you compare it with the engineering standards and determine does it meet a four-way stop in this location? Does it meet just a two-way?”

After review, the commission recommended the city council to put in a two-way stop.

Oligschlaeger said she would just like to see drivers slow down.

“If people would just slow down a little it would probably work fine the way it is,” she said.

The city council is set to vote on the issue at its next meeting on May 16.