Four years ago a traffic accident occurred that people in the Columbus community haven’t forgotten. Josh Speidel, then a standout basketball player at Columbus North High School, was severely injured when his car was struck on the driver’s side near Taylorsville.
He had stopped at the intersection of Bear Lane and U.S. 31, then entered U.S. 31 from the perimeter road on the west side. His car was T-boned by another vehicle that had exited Interstate 65 and was headed south.
Speidel suffered a traumatic brain injury, among many other injuries, and endured many months of recuperation and rehabilitation to regain motor skills and functions such as walking.
Though now a student at the University of Vermont, where he has a basketball scholarship, Speidel is still not 100 percent where he was physically. The accident is a reminder of the dangers that stretch of road presents, particularly with regard to vehicles having to try to cross through traffic on one side of the road to get to the other.
Fortunately, the Indiana Department of Transportation is considering making traffic changes on U.S. 31 in that area. It wants to install J-turns at Bear Lane and Taylor Road, to accommodate motorists making left-hand turns.
A J-turn forces a driver to turn with the flow of traffic in one direction for a short distance before merging into a left-hand turn lane, which then allows the driver to make a U-turn back to get back to the desired destination. Such turns have been widely used in Michigan for decades, and are intended to reduce the number of severe crashes when drivers must cross a busy highway.
Safety improvements have been discussed in that area for several years. This would be a good step toward greater motorist safety.
We urge approval of this proposed change.
