Whitney Downard / The Meridian StarWorkers with the Mississippi Department of Transporation install a temporary J-turn at the Highway 45 and State Route 145 intersection in Clarke County, the site of a fatal accident last month.

In the wake of the death of three Monroe County residents, the Mississippi Department of Transportation said it would complete a temporary J-turn at the Highway 45 and State Route 145 intersection in Clarke County on Tuesday. 

Gavin Thomas Toler, 16; Tyla Rhodes Toler, 57; and Robert Earl Toler, 57, each died as a result of their injuries following a July 19 crash at the intersection. Gavin died at the scene, Tyla that evening and Robert died Sunday. 

MDOT had studied the intersection for several months, according to Tom King, the Southern District transportation commissioner. 

“We didn’t just come up with this last week,” King said. 

According to King, the temporary J-turn would be finished sometime Tuesday evening and would cost between $50,000 and $70,000. The permanent J-turn will cost around $1 million. 

“You can’t put a monetary value on a life,” King said. “It’s this serious where I don’t feel like I can wait.”

King said the permanent J-turn will be completed when funding for the project becomes available and that, to his knowledge, there had never been a fatality at one of MDOT’s J-turns. 

“That’s what it’s all about: saving lives and protecting the public,” King said. “By using J-turns, it’s been proven that (it) reduces accidents, injuries and fatalities by 50 percent.”

Some residents had created a “Citizens Against J-Turn at Clarkdale Hwy 45” group on Facebook, protesting the planned change.

The group said on Facebook that creating a J-turn “will only move the accidents to a different intersection as well as creating too many intersections.”

Clarke County Sheriff Todd Kemp followed up on this question with King, echoing the concerns of his constituents. 

King responded by saying the crossover road could be moved further from the intersection if accidents occurred. 

“People will be inconvenienced a bit but that’ll be safer,” King said.

Though the petition requested a four-way stop sign, King said that a stoplight or a four-way stop would be unsafe for that intersection. 

“We feel like the safest thing is a J-turn. With a stop sign, if people are ignoring a two-way (stop) they’re going to ignore a all-way or a four-way stop,” King said, adding that stoplights increased the likelihood of rear-end accidents. 

King said the Mississippi Highway Patrol had written more than 217 citations at the intersection between July 21 and July 30.