MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A neighborhood is looking for solutions after a crash left one person dead, and another in a hospital. Neighbors say accidents accidents on and near Jackson Avenue, and this is just the latest example of why they need the city of Memphis needs to be put more effort into keeping the community safe.
It has been just over a week since a crash happened in front of Smith’s Pools. ABC24 was able to acquire video surveillance of the crash. In it you can see two people being thrown from a car, one was also seen landing on the roof right next to where the crash happened.
Reckless driving on Jackson Avenue is not anything new, and they don’t seem to be getting better.
“They really don’t care about people’s lives,” one neighbor told ABC24,“We just get used to it, we just see police lights and everything.”
“I see people driving around fast on Jackson Avenue, especially in that area because people are getting off on the highway,” said Miguel Duarte who lives with his family nearby.
Several of the residents off of Jackson told ABC24, a lot of the speeding and reckless driving on the nearby I-40 interstate often spills into the nearby neighborhoods.
“It’s like basically the freeway here, they’ll be doing like 100 mph, they don’t care if they see kids out here or not, they still fly,” said Jose Guerrero.
His three kids love to play outside from sunup to sundown.
Still, Guerrero says he is scared of the risk drivers pose to his family. Neighbors say the drivers get worse when people get out of work over the weekend.
“We need speed bumps here. There’s a lot of neighbors that have been trying to get together, but I feel personally that since this is a Hispanic community, a lot of people are scared to speak up with what’s going on,” said Guerrero.
Other neighbors say they want stop signs, traffic lights, cameras, just some kind of change. Some residents nearby have considered moving because of the dangers drivers pose.
“We’re thinking of moving, we’re trying to move out to the country, especially because that’s the best way to go because the city is getting crazier and crazier,” said Guerrero, “I guess that’s the sad thing about it, because this is home, and you can’t even call it home because even if it’s home you want the best for your kids, and maybe the best thing to do is going to move somewhere else.”
The Memphis Police Department is still investigating the crash that took place May 13th, but neighbors are still worried about the risk this area on Jackson Avenue faces.
One person died in a hit and run in November 2022, and in 2016 three people died within a mile of each other.
Before the 5:00 p.m. newscast, one driver told ABC24 there was a four car accident on Jackson off of 1-40, MPD confirms there were no injuries.