Franklin dad asks for safer crosswalk after teen daughter hit by car
“They may not even know there’s a pedestrian if they are not paying attention. So, it’s understandably very scary and you can see how it ends.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - A Franklin dad whose teenage daughter was hit by a car on Thursday is thankful she didn’t die.
She was hit while trying to cross the street properly with two other friends, one of which is still in the hospital.
To cross the intersection of Cool Springs Boulevard and Carronbridge Way, even if a person presses a button to light up blinking caution lights, that doesn’t mean the driver will stop. They didn’t for Tim Malone’s daughter.
“The three kids were just walking back home,” Malone said.
The three friends go to Ravenwood High School and went to a pool party at their subdivision for the last day of school. As they were walking back home, Malone heard what sounded like a crash from his home office.
“It was right before five o’clock,” he said. “I heard a squeal, and my first instinct was ‘oh, there must have been an auto accident.’”
Seconds later Malone said his daughter called saying she was hit by a car.
“So, I jumped up and ran through the bushes and the two girls were sitting at the side of the road,” he said. “The other young man was laid out in the middle of the road, face down just not doing very well.”
Malone said another man was on the scene trying to help. He found out later he was the driver who hit them.
“When I got here and asked for assistance in helping the child that was on the road, he had enough mental fortitude to suck it up and help me do what I needed to do,” he said.
Malone used to be on the HOA at the subdivision nearby. For years he’s been trying to make the intersection into a stop light. He said all the City of Franklin put in was a yellow caution light, which puts people at risk.
“It’s not a fix, I wouldn’t even call it a band-aid,” Malone said. “I would call it ‘just let me put pressure on a problem, let me hold pressure on a gushing wound.’”
People who live near the intersection said while the speed limit is 40 miles per hour, cars go more like 50, 60, or 70 mph.
Ned Dannenberg, President of Bike Walk Franklin, said a five-lane road, like Cool Springs Boulevard, is hard to cross with only a flashing caution light.
“It doesn’t require drivers to stop,” he said. “They may not even know there’s a pedestrian if they are not paying attention. So, it’s understandably very scary and you can see how it ends.”
Dannenberg said he hopes to work with the city to install a traffic light at the intersection.
While Malone’s daughter has physical and mental scars, he said it could have been a lot worse.
“Yeah, we’ve got some bumps, bruises, maybe some sort of broken bones, some head trauma, but at least this morning we aren’t planning for a funeral,” he said.
Malone also added he’s going to leave it to the city to file charges against the driver. He is currently working with an attorney.
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