Letter: Caution light doesn’t cut it at dangerous intersection

It’s been six months since we lost our stepgranddaughter. We are not happy with the N.C. Department of Transportation at all.If it thinks putting a caution light at Triplett Road and Highway 70 will save another life, it is wrong. Lives were lost there in October 2007.

First Mike Dishman, who didn’t even know the road was open, and then Oct. 20 we lost Cathy Tolbert and our stepgranddaughter, Casey, who was only 3.

Even with 2,000 signatures on a petition calling for a red light, we didn’t get it because it didn’t meet the standards. We wonder why not because one mile down the road there is a new red light right in front of Casey’s grandpa’s house that just leads off to the old 70 and then a mile the other way is a red light that leads from the old 70 on to the new 70 with nothing but a dirt road across from it that dead ends. How does this meet those standards?

Good question when Triplett Road leads to Mooresville. Doesn’t make sense to us or anybody we’ve talked to.

We know there’s not been another wreck at that intersection since Casey died, but there have been a lot of close calls. One was her own mother, who was heading to Statesville when a truck almost pulled out in front of her at the same intersection where she lost Casey. There have been others, too.

It just goes to show people are trying to edge out just like Casey’s Grandma Cathy did, only a tractor trailer hit her front fender and it cost her her life and our stepgranddaughter’s.

I place flowers on the crosses and so does her mom. And I can stand and just watch as traffic on both intersections line up and you know why? The three crosses are just a reminder of what could be them. It hurts that we didn’t get the red light, and yes, we blame NCDOT for it. If there had been a light up, no one would have died. All because of its stupidity.

We miss Casey. She would have been 4 on May 18, and also on that date her baby brother is due, one that she never got to see because of the new road. My grandson, Joshua, who is 4, goes to his dad’s house and goes in Casey’s room and its like he’s looking for her. The room is still the same as it was when she left to go spend the weekend with her grandma.

If you ask what he’s looking for, he won’t say, but then he will come up and say, “My Casey’s gone and I want her back to play with me, and she’s never coming back ’til Jesus comes.” That hurts to hear a child say that.

Our hearts are mending, but tears still fill our eyes at times. And it’s still hard on all of us. Were just waiting and praying something will be done. There needs to be a red light at Triplett Road and Highway 70. What’s it going to take, a busload of kids trying to make it across a four-lane highway, before NCDOT puts the red light up? So many close calls and all we got was a caution light that doesn’t even help. The only thing that helps is those three crosses on the side of the road, one with a little teddy bear and one a wreath, where my stepgranddaughter breathed her last breath along with her grandma.

Margie Teaster
Woodleaf