Two people died as a result of a vehicle crash Wednesday afternoon near a dangerous intersection in Clarke County that residents, lawmakers and Mississippi Department of Transportation engineers have known about for at least a year.

One of the car’s occupants, Tyla Rhodes Toler, 57, died in surgery Wednesday evening following the two-car accident, which happened around noon near the intersection of Highway 45 and Highway 145, according to Sgt. Andy West of the Mississippi Highway Patrol Troop H.  Gavin Thomas Toler, 16, also died in the crash. 

The Tolers were riding in a Chevy Tahoe LTZ with four other teenagers and one adult, all from Monroe County, when the vehicle overturned on the highway near Mathis Produce, West said.

West said Wednesday the Tahoe, whose occupants were unrestrained, overturned after a Honda Odyssey failed to yield the right of way and pulled out into the southbound side of Highway 45 at the Highway 145 intersection.

West didn’t have an update on the five other Tahoe occupants Thursday morning, but the accident report lists the driver, Robert Earl Toler, 57, as incapacitated at the scene. Passengers Bryant Forrest Butler, 17; Robert Tylar Toler, 15; Samuel Kenneth Frantz, 16; and Bryson Edward Butler, 17, had moderate injuries, according to the report. 

The three Honda occupants – George Edward Blakely, of Clinton; Rosalie Alipar Blakely, of Clinton; and Bobby Ray Blakely, of Enterprise – were uninjured, West said. West said no charges were filed against the driver of the Honda.

Previous accidents had already placed the intersection on the radar of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, according to Gabe Faggard, the agency’s assistant engineer for District 6.  

Faggard, who oversees construction in District 6, which covers Clarke County, said most accidents happen when drivers approaching 45 from Clarkdale fail to yield at the stop sign. 

“Within the last year… (we) installed rumble bars, which helps to reinforce and alert the driver about a stop ahead, and installed a stop sign with LED lights,” Faggard said.

The improvements came after locals expressed concerns about the roadway, and more might be ahead for the intersection.

Faggard said the MDOT Road Safety Audit should be released within a month, which identifies areas where safety enhancements may be needed. 

MDOT is considering two options: closing the medium crossover, at a cost of approximately $200,000, or building a “J-turn” directional median that would limit cross traffic, at a cost of around $1 million. 

With a “J-turn,” Highway 145 drivers would have to turn right and make a U-turn farther down the road while Highway 45 drivers could still exit.

“All construction timeframes depend on funding,” Faggard said, adding that it could take two to three years to design the project and another year to construct it.

“The advantage here is that MDOT has already been studying that corridor for several months now,” Faggard said. 

William E. Shirley, Jr., the representative for District 84, has sent letters to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety and the Mississippi Transportation Commission, asking those organizations to take action at the intersection.

“Those letters were dated back in May… this has been an ongoing situation for years,” Shirley, whose district covers the intersection, said. “It didn’t just start.”

Shirley said he sent the letters, after he made numerous phone calls, to have physical evidence of his conversations about the intersection.

“I really wanted the safety folks at MDOT and their engineers to say what is the problem, what is the fix, the remedy, the solution,” Shirley said. “I’m not a safety person or engineer.”

Shirley said after he sent the letter to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Mississippi Highway Patrol, troopers patrolled the intersection and wrote around 40 tickets for running the stop sign.

“I drive through that intersection every day, I live in Quitman,” Shirley said. “I don’t know if the solution is a four-way stop, a caution sign or closing the intersection. I don’t know.”

Shirley said the transportation commissioner told him the intersection, when built, had standard striping and stop signs. Since then, larger stripes, rumble strips, flashing lights and bigger, a brighter stop sign with LED lights have been added.

“Something needs to be done… I’m hoping they come to some sort of solution,” Shirley said.

Randy Pope, a long-time Highway 45 resident, said he’s personally witnessed at least eight accidents at the intersection.

Pope said the way some vehicles are built makes it hard for some drivers to see. 

“It’s a blind spot, because the way that automobiles are constructed, that brace there is obstructing the view,” Pope said. “It sounds dumb and strange, but if you sit in that intersection you’ll see what I mean.”

Pope said he’d taught his family to drive more defensively and turn their wheels at this intersection – and at highway medians – to see past the brace.

“There’s no reason to hurry, it’s a wide-open road and they get sloppy,” Pope said. “And they don’t realize that little issue.”

Pope said a blinking light might slow drivers but said he’d probably post a sign warning drivers about the deaths at the intersection with the instruction to please stop.

“Somebody might look,” Pope said. “You can’t imagine the accidents. It’s just deadly, absolutely deadly for people in a hurry.”

Clarke County Sheriff Todd Kemp estimates there have been close to 100 crashes at the intersection since 2000.

“We’ve got to do something. We need to put some heat on the DOT (Department of Transportation) to fix this,” Kemp said following the accident. “The problem is the cross flow traffic. They went to Shubuta and spent a half-million dollars on a less traveled road than this, where you can’t go across…They could have saved that money down there and spent it here.”

Meridian Star reporter Victoria Hosey contributed to this report.