Bypass Crashes Prompt Renewed Scrutiny
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There were no serious injuries reported in a crash at the Hwy. 315 and Hwy. 7 bypass intersection Monday morning. It is the fourth crash at the intersection this year.
WATER VALLEY – A tragic vehicle crash on May 8 that claimed the life of Antonie Hilliard at the Hwy. 315/7 bypass has sparked renewed scrutiny about safety concerns at the intersection. The crash remains under investigation by the Water Valley Police Department, but the apparent culprit was a southbound vehicle that did not stop at the four-way and collided with Hilliard, who was crossing the intersection on Hwy. 315 coming into town. Hilliard, age 42, was a Water Valley and University of Mississippi graduate, and a military veteran.
The fatal crash that claimed his life marked the third this year at the intersection. A fourth crash was reported Monday morning at the same intersection.
“A southbound driver did not see the stop sign,” Water Valley Chief Jason Mangrum reported about Monday’s wreck.
The driver collided with another vehicle that was crossing the bypass on Hwy. 315. Mangrum reported there were no serious injuries in Monday’s crash.
Mangrum has also pulled statistics for crashes at the intersection, checking back to October, 2021 and reported there have been a total of 19 crashes at the intersection. The unofficial tally, he is still researching, shows one wreck in the final months of 2021, six wrecks in 2022, five in 2023, three in 2024 and, so far, four in 2025. This equates to an average of around five wrecks a year at the intersection. Mangrum also said that his department works approximately 80 crashes annually, a figure that ranges from parking lot mishaps to serious incidents
The chief said of the 19 wrecks at the intersection during that time period, there were 10 where a patient was not transported by ambulance for medical treatment a likely indicator there were not serious injuries.
The chief also reported that the vast majority of crashes involve vehicles traveling north or south on Hwy. 7 that do not stop at the four-way intersection. The Mississippi Department of Transportation last made changes at the intersection in March 2022, when it was converted to a four-way stop. Prior to that the intersection was a two-way stop, with traffic on Hwy. 315 stopping.
Northern District Highway Commissioner John Caldwell was contacted Monday by a concerned citizen after the most recent wreck. He reported work will start to determine if there are additional options to make the intersection safer.
“We will definitely look into it and have traffic engineers that will assess the intersection,” Caldwell told the Herald Tuesday morning after Libby Kuchta initially reached out to him. “Our engineers are always looking for ways to make our highways safer.”
Caldwell noted that it is hard to account for driver error.
“But at the same time we need to look at it and see if improvements can be made,” he added.
Mangrum is also unsure of how to make drivers pay more attention to reduce the number of driver error crashes.
“Yes, a lot of people run the stop signs,” Mangrum said about the bypass crashes. “And yes, we write a lot of citations at that intersection. My word of caution, if I am not sure you are going to stop, I am going to sit and wait. And it should not be that way.”
