May 4, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
The spot on Highway 70 at Liberty where 19 year old Savannah Buckley lost her life Monday morning is particularly dangerous especially when it rains.
Several wrecks have occurred there in recent years including a few fatal crashes due to hydroplaning. 36 year old Sarah Marie Bullington Clark was killed in a crash there on the morning of Tuesday August 19, 2014 while she was on her way to work.
After learning of this latest crash involving Buckley, State Representative Terri Lynn Weaver has taken action and is urging the Tennessee Department of Transportation to fix the drainage problem immediately in the “kill zone” on Highway 70 at Liberty.
In a correspondence Monday to Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Clay Bright, Representative Weaver wrote “ Today I was informed of a fatal crash which took the life of yet another young woman on her way to work. Nineteen year old Savannah Buckley lost her life due to hydroplaning on Highway 70 at Liberty. The same location that a dear young friend of mine, Sarah Bullington Clark, lost her life several years ago, also due to hydroplaning”.
“There is an approximately 10 foot spot where Highway 53 to Woodbury intersects Highway 70 at the location of the Baptist Church, wherein drainage flowing down the hill runs across the roadway. There have been numerous other accidents and “close calls” of motorists fishtailing and hitting that part of the curve where it doesn’t take much rainwater to cause an issue.”
“I am asking you to please correct the drainage issue immediately. Monies have been budgeted to finish Highway 70 from Highway 96 to Alexandria; please do what is necessary to include a solution to the above-referenced “kill zone” that has already taken the lives of two young individuals, and endangered the lives of many more. Please contact me with what can be done to correct this dangerous roadway condition”, wrote Representative Weaver.