LEHI, Utah — A Lehi man shared an extremely close call he had Sunday at a problematic intersection near Thanksgiving Point. He thinks it’s only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt.
“It needs to change, I don’t know what they’re waiting for, someone really to get hurt?,” said James Young.
Young, a Lehi resident has lived at Thanksgiving Point for 11 years and he’s concerned with the amount of near-misses he’s seen at the intersection of Ashton Blvd. and Club House Drive.
“My daughter, who just got her driver’s license, I kind of tell her to stay away from this intersection because it’s kind of scary,” said Young.
Over the years he’s lived in the area there have been a lot of changes, including more traffic in the area.
“This intersection is like 100 times what it used to be when we first moved in,” Young said.
Young added that when the Lehi corridor was redone, he got in two accidents that weren’t his fault, so he got a dash cam in case of future accidents.
“I love the dash cam, I see so many people making mistakes,” said Young.
But Sunday, he had an extremely close call.
Young and his family were sitting in the left turn lane at a red light when a truck driver appeared distracted and mistook the left turn lane for a straight lane, almost hitting Young head on. The truck driver then swerved into oncoming traffic, luckily when there were no cars.
“We’re just sitting there at the light, it was red for us, and all of a sudden I looked up and there was a car in the intersection going so fast, my wife kind of screamed a little bit,” said Young.
Young was prompted to warn people about this intersection online, with many saying they’ve had their own close calls there. He says the left turn markers on the road are usually covered by cars, making them hard to see.
In addition to the turn markers, Young believes the traffic signals are also confusing, with two green lights next to each other.
“I mean, if I was the planner, I would come out here and remove one of them and make the left turn lane a little more obvious," said Young. "It happens like four times a week that cars come out here and stop.”
He’s hoping his video will prompt change before someone gets seriously hurt.
The intersection is controlled by Utah Department of Transportation and they say the roadway is marked correctly.
“We’ll definitely look at it and work with Lehi to see if there’s anything that needs to be addressed, but just on the surface, the driver is distracted and wasn’t paying attention and that could have caused a serious crash,” said UDOT spokesperson John Gleason.
Even though the layout has been the same for several years now, new traffic is constantly drawn to Thanksgiving Point because of its attractions.
“If you’re driving in a new area, its especially important to pay attention to the roads and the intersections,” said Gleason.
The City of Lehi says there have been 94 crashes at that intersection since 2010, with only 13 of those in the westbound left turn lanes.
