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Courtney Orton reportingDozens of accidents have taken place in recent years at the intersection of 10400 South and Bangerter Highway. The mother of a 4-year-old girl who was killed in an accident there in February says the stoplight could be partly to blame.
The stop light at the intersection stays yellow for five seconds. The Utah Department of Transportation says that number is set by national guidelines. But with speed limits on Bangerter Highway ranging from 45 to 60 miles per hour, the mother who lost her daughter says it's not long enough.
Lori Floor said, "It's not your life you're dealing with; it's someone else's and someone else's children."
She knows that all too well. She described the painful result of the multi-car accident that claimed the life of her 4-year-old daughter Ashtin two months ago. "Two weeks in the hospital, 20 broken bones, losing a daughter, my son who is 10 [years old] suffered a serious skull fracture," she said.
The car she was driving was t-boned by a car South Jordan Police say ran the red light. "It's just pure neglect to go through a light like that," Floor said.
Floor says the driver also had a suspended license. "So what? It's a piece of plastic he's missing. I'm missing my 5-year-old daughter. People who would just pay a little more attention and not be so neglectful of their driving could change that for a lot of people, could have changed that for me," she said.
Now Lori hopes she can change it for others.
She'd like more Advance Warning Signs on the highway like the one at Redwood Road and Bangerter to alert drivers of stop lights ahead. UDOT says the signs they put up as part of a study with Brigham Young University have been a success.
"If you can do anything as a legacy to her, to help someone else not have to go through what we've been through. Because it's not fair. It's not," Floor said.
The Advance Warning Signs are not only on Bangerter Highway. UDOT says they've been successful on high-speed roadways across the state. But UDOT points out there's only so much it can do to make sure the systems are safe. After that, it's up to drivers to make good decisions.
UDOT says there are approximately 35,000 cars that go through that intersection each day. That number has gone up in recent years because of growth and could be one reason more accidents are happening.
E-mail: corton@ksl.com
