SAN ANTONIO — After a crash left two people hurt and a vehicle on fire, another resident is sharing their concerns about an intersection on the city's west side.
It happened last Friday at the corner of Grissom and Old Grissom Roads, according to San Antonio police. A crash report said a driver on Old Grissom attempted to make a left turn onto Grissom when another vehicle t-boned the car. Both drivers were transported to the hospital with injuries but are expected to be okay.
"It upsets me a great deal," said Becky Toolan, a nearby resident.
Toolan gets upset every time an accident happens at the intersection. On Tuesday, KENS 5 pulled up stats within the last three years on TxDOT's Crash Records Information System or C.R.I.S Query.
For the areas of Grissom and Old Grissom roads, nearly 20 crashes appear in the data. It doesn't include the most recent accident from Friday nor a deadly crash from early May. Toolan believes crashes are occurring more for two reasons: population growth and an increase of aggressive drivers.
"It's starting to become the norm and that's not right," said Toolan.
Similar concerns were expressed to us from our reporting on the intersection on May 10.
"Not one more person should be dying at that intersection," said Eric Maldonado, another resident.
Maldonado said an email to his District 6 representative about a traffic study/ traffic light went unanswered. We reached out to Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda and the City's Public Works Department about the intersection. At the time, Public Works said the corridor did not meet the traffic requirements to install a traffic signal.
In a follow up email on Tuesday, a spokesperson told us the department, 'updated its traffic data for this intersection and determined to move forward with plans to install a traffic signal.'
He went on to say, 'TxDOT sets minimum requirements (or thresholds) for traffic volume and “correctible” crashes to determine if a traffic signal is warranted. Correctible crashes are those that can be potentially prevented with the installation of a traffic signal. The traffic data shows that this intersection does not meet the threshold for traffic volume but that it does meet the crash threshold. When only one threshold is met, it becomes an engineering decision on how to proceed.'
Public Works said a traffic signal could cost up to $500,000 including design and construction. About $90,000 will come from the councilwoman's budget and will go towards the project design now set to begin this summer. The plan is to include construction for this project into the FY25 Budget, according to Public Works.
"It just became so urgent to me because my community was calling for it," said Councilwoman Cabello Havrda.
We also asked her about the unanswered email regarding the traffic study. She said her office has a rule to respond within 24 hours on business days, and communication about the new traffic light will be conveyed to constituents.
"Hopefully that [traffic light] will be what stops these deaths from occurring," she said.