Swampland:Highway 72--Not the "Highway To Hell" but the "Highway From Hell"

Highway 72--Not the "Highway To Hell" but the "Highway From Hell"

Posted: Jun 11, 2009

My eyes are bleary and my hands are shaking as I write this blog. I had planned to post a cheery and humorous little piece about possums, but instead I am writing about senseless death. Tomorrow I will bury my second friend to be killed on Highway 72 between Athens, Alabama, and the Limestone County line in less than five years. My longtime friend Gerald Burns died Tuesday morning as a result of injuries sustained in a wreck at the construction of a new elementary school on Highway 72 just across from the turn to Blue Springs Road. Four and a half years ago my dear friend and colleague Dr, Jenita Smith was killed just a few days short of her 50th birthday as she was driving to Athens State University to conduct her class. A mother and her child also died in that collision.

I call this stretch of Highway 72 the "highway from hell" because thirty-three people have died on a 13 mile strip of road since 1994. There are few turn lanes, no median, and most drivers ignore the 60 mph speed limit and pay no attention at all to "45 mph when wet." Highway 72 west of Athens is really just a four lane country road with farm equipment lumbering along and folks pulling in and out of their driveways on the way to school or work, but it is traveled as if it were Interstate 65. This is utterly incongruous

We all take our lives in our hands every time we pull out onto Highway 72 or try to turn off the highway onto another road. A few years ago as I went to vote at the Clements Fire Department, I witnessed a fatal collision that resulted in the death of a mother and her infant son. There is no turn lane at the Clements Fire Department. The next year we voted at the Clements Baptist Church a half mile up the road where there is a proper turn lane. There is still no turn lane at the Clements Fire Department.

Now a brand new elementary school is being built on this deadly highway, and the promised turn lanes are still no where to be seen. A spokesman for the ALDOT said that it could be five years before the lanes are completed. The school is scheduled to be completed in 2010. In 2006 Governor Bob Riley told a local newspaper that the $24 million dollars had been set aside for the construction of a turn lane from the western outskirts of Athens to the Lauderdale County line (ie, Elk River). He said work would be completed by 2010.

In 2005 residents circulated a petition with 1700 names urging that something be done about this death trap of a highway. Some work was done on the road to minimize hydroplaning, but no turn lanes were added other than the one at the Clements Baptist Church. It is now 2009, and more people have died needlessly. How many more lives must be sacrificed before the authorities take action and remedy this desperate situation?

I know now how Dr. Martin Luther King felt when he quoted the psalmist saying "How long, Lord? How long?"

---Penne J. Laubenthal

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DixieKen38 says...

I've never driven it, but the Drive By Truckers have a song called "72(This Highways Mean)" on their Southern Rock Opera album. It just happens to be my fave DBT song. I wanted to drive it one day, but from what ya'll wrote, it does sound MEAN!!!

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I live off of this stretch of roadway and shudder everytime I hear an ambulance screeching its sirens to go pick up yet another wreck victim . I then wait for the phone to ring as I know my sweet Mom will call and tell me so and so was in that wreck. we are a close knit community who have lost to many people. I have began a facebook group to ask for a traffic signal to be put on that road. Maybe all of us together can make our voices heard before we all lose another friend or family member

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Penne, I just read your article about hywy. 72. I am amazed that the governing body of Limestone County and/or the state of Alabama haven't put a turning lane or a light of some sort at the turn into Elk River and your neighborhood. That has always been a busy spot of the highway, especially since so many homes are there and probably more being built. I'm truly sorry for your loss and hold you close to my heart. It seems the loss of lives is what it takes for the government to act and that is a real shame. Love to you and your family. I look forward to seeing and being with you the end of September. Loveandkisses, Star

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