Dear Editor,

MDOT (Mississippi Department of Transportation) completed their modifications to the Hwy. 6 /Terza Road intersection a few weeks ago. I am sure that the mods will help to lower the occurrence of accidents at the intersection. But alas, I fear there will still be more.

The installation of what appear to be plastic pipes in the road to direct drivers to all turn right will cause most unimpeded drivers going south to turn west.

However, when they do this they are unable to position their vehicles so that they can see westbound traffic on Hwy. 6 in their mirrors. Vehicles have to stop facing about 45 degrees to the direction of traffic.

As a result, they are unable to merge safely. The same is true at north bound Good Hope Road. I have seen accidents at both intersections where traffic turning onto Hwy. 6 pulled out in front of oncoming traffic since they were unable to see them coming in their mirrors.

It seems to me that a short merge lane at each intersection would go a long way toward making them safer.

About 100 feet to the east of Terza Road, there is a red sign with the words “WRONG WAY” in white letters. Under the right circumstances this sign can obscure part or all of the westbound traffic from drivers crossing the median.

I drove to Oxford expressly to look for the locations where these signs are in use. There are none in Lafayette County and the ones in Panola County are not at every intersection, so I don’t believe there is a regulation requiring this sign to be there.

Taking this sign down would cost almost nothing and, in my opinion would make the intersection safer where the posts in the road do not have an effect.

Then there are the speed breakers that were put in before the posts were put up. The issue is that when they were installed, some one decided that if one layer of speed breakers were good, then two would be better.

That is not the case. Instead, the double high speed breakers deliver bone-jarring, teeth rattling impact to people that have to cross them, even if one slows to a near stop. In my case pain shoots up my back.

The result is that people are driving around them, creating an even more dangerous situation. Whoever had the idea to double them clearly does not have to use them daily as I do. It is too bad people do such things to their neighbors. The speed breakers are also damaging vehicles, causing stuff to fall off them and causing undo wear to shock absorbers and other parts.

The double high approach was not applied at the other intersections where the speed breakers were installed at about the same time. It is time the double layers are removed from Terza Rd.

Don Elmore