As Student Fights for His Life After Crash, Citizens Seek Solutions to Dangerous Intersection

As a Wall High School student fights for his life in the aftermath of a Mar. 2 crash at the intersection of U.S. 277 and Grand Canal Rd., San Angelo leaders are looking for ways to fix safety issues at that intersection.

A 16-year-old male driving himself to high school in Wall in his Chevy pickup failed to yield the right-of-way to another Chevy truck traveling at legal highway speeds southbound on U.S. 277.

The Wall student’s truck was T-boned on the driver’s door, and emergency responders used the Jaws-of-Life to extract the teenager.

This is not the first time a major crash has happened here.

Below: a video of the extraction of a passenger after a crash at Grand Canal and U.S. 277 on May 5, 2015. The passenger died in the hospital.

On May 5, 2015, an 80-year-old Del Rio man, Lloyd Argabright, succumbed to injuries after the man’s wife failed to yield the right-of-way while heading eastbound at the same intersection. Argabright was the passenger.

Two months later, a child passenger was injured at the same intersection.

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Above: a July 20, 2015 crash where a child was injured at Grand Canal and US 277. (LIVE! Photo/Benjamin Hettick)

Because of the number of crashes at this intersection, San Angelo City Councilman Rodney Fleming is leading an effort to help TxDOT expedite an engineering study and fix the intersection of U.S. 277 at Grand Canal. He represents Single Member District 1 where the intersection is located.

State Rep. Drew Darby is working on finding state money to finance a fix there, Fleming said.

Fleming also said he met with the San Angelo TxDOT team Thursday afternoon.

“TxDOT and the City of San Angelo are working on getting a consultant engineer to determine what is the best fix. The small fifth way into the intersection has to be closed no matter what is done,” Fleming said.

What Fleming calls the “fifth way” into the intersection is the frontage road along the west side of U.S. 277 interchange that travels north-south from Country Club Rd.

“TxDOT says they cannot control the intersection with a traffic light if it’s a five-way interchange,” Fleming said.

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Above: A map of the intersection of U.S. 277 and Grand Canal Rd. (Councilman Rodney Fleming)

There was some resistance to closing the frontage road last year, but Fleming said, in light of the latest accident, he feels opposition has decreased.

“Because this intersection is extremely hard to maneuver, a traffic light would help people to understand it is their turn instead of a yield and stop sign and feeling like you are playing leapfrog in the middle of the intersection.” Fleming wrote in a Facebook post Mar. 2. “Even the smartest, most attentive drivers get nervous and scared at this intersection.”

The 16-year-old student injured in the Mar. 2 crash, Jonathan “J.T.” Taylor, continues to fight for his life in ICU. According to his family’s continuous updates on Facebook, Taylor is still in critical condition. The family’s latest request was for continued prayers. Specifically, they are requesting prayers that J.T. can open his eyes and keep them that way; that he can respond to commands with hands, feet, and eyes; to offer thanks to the Lord for keeping J.T. free from infection and pray that he remains infection free; and that the tragedy can be a witness opportunity to demonstrate the love of God.

Fleming’s next move is to hold a town hall meeting about the intersection on Mar. 21 at 6 p.m. at the Southgate Church of Christ, 528 Country Club Rd.

In the meantime, Fleming said he is collecting electronic signatures through an online petition to advocate for safety improvements at the intersection.

• You can sign the petition online here (at the time of this article, they had 843 of their goal or 1,000 signatures)
• You can like and follow the Facebook page “Grand Canal Needs a Light to Save Lives” here.