Fulton residents fighting to make intersection more safe

Three vehicles crashed at the intersection of Tennyson Road and Route C in Fulton and seriously injured two women and moderately injured another woman and three children,Thursday.

Mary Rehklau, a councilwoman for the city of Fulton, said that crash was one too many, especially after telling Missouri Department of Transportation engineers for over a year that they need to make the intersection less dangerous.

The speed limit on Route C eastbound, heading into the intersection toward Fulton, is 50 mph and drivers don’t have a stop sign.

The speed limit westbound starts at 40 mph and increases to 50 mph just before the intersection.

MoDOT engineers have administered speed studies over the years after receiving complaints of the speed limit being too high.

The results of the studies show that drivers are following the speed limit and that there has been a low amount of crashes, none resulting in fatalities, so engineers said the limit does not need to be lowered.

MoDOT engineers said lowering the speed limit could cause more accidents to occur because drivers would not be used to the slower speed and wouldn’t be able to gauge how fast other people are driving.

The city of Fulton has to receive permission from MoDOT to change anything on Route C because it is a state road.

MoDOT granted permission for the city to install interactive flashers at the intersection. The flashers are signs that would warn drivers of the presence of vehicles entering Route C from Tennyson Road.

The city of Fulton will pay for the flashers, and MoDOT will maintain them.

Rekluah said the flashers aren’t enough. The two women, who were seriously hurt in the most recent accident, said the flashers aren’t enough.