Injury car accidents, fender-benders … you name it — they’ve all occurred frequently at the M-24/Atwater intersection.
The latest accident, where a child was seriously injured, has spurred new attempts by Village of Lake Orion officials to install a left arrow at the intersection.
Both LO Village Manager JoAnn Van Tassel and LO Police Chief Jerry Narsh have indicated they plan on putting more pressure on Lansing for the turn arrow.
According to Van Tassel, the developer of Atwater Commons agreed to put in the arrow when his site plan was approved several years ago.
Van Tassel said the arrow was OK’d by the Traffic Service Center in Waterford, at Oakland County and the MDOT regional office in Southfield.
People from the Michigan Department of Transportation and State Senator Mike Bishop came to the village and checked out the intersection last November.
At that time Bishop said he would stay on top of the issue until the village got the turn arrow.
It wasn’t until Van Tassel was at a meeting in Lansing that she discovered when the paperwork reached Lansing, the turn arrow was eliminated from the permit application submitted by Atwater Commons.
Lansing is now telling Van Tassel a traffic study at the intersection needs to be done and it will be conducted next year.
Village council members agreed to send a resolution to the county and the state stating they were concerned about the safety of the intersection.