NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A dad is demanding safety improvements to Gallatin Pike after a serious crash landed his pregnant wife in the hospital with a brain injury.
Abigail Dailey was leaving the Sonic on Gallatin Pike with her kids in tow when another driver slammed into them head-on on July 14.
"The nice folks at Sonic ran out and pulled my girls out of the car, but my wife was incapacitated, and they waited for the ambulance to show up," said her husband, Brian Dailey.
Brian said his girls were banged up, and his pregnant wife was seriously hurt. She is still hospitalized with a brain bleed.
"The baby’s fine, miraculously," he said.
Police are investigating the crash because the other driver appeared to be speeding down the center lane, according to a Metro Police spokesperson.
"Every time we go out there it feels like we’re rolling the dice," Brian said.
He believes the stretch of Gallatin Pike between Briley Parkway and downtown is dangerous and needs to be safer. His children were traumatized by the wreck.
"The 7-year-old was in the car yesterday going somewhere, and she was sitting like this and I said, 'Are you tensed up because you are afraid?' And she said 'yeah,'" said Brian.
Brian said planned improvements aren't moving fast enough. Metro Council Members Emily Benedict and Brett Withers noted it could take years before Gallatin Pike is fixed.
"This is the number one thing I hear about from my constituents; we have got to do more," Benedict said.
They've requested more police officers to patrol the area.
“If you’re in district 7, your days are numbered; you’re not going to speed anymore in this district," Benedict said.
This is not the first time something like this has happened. In November, a juvenile was hit by a truck on Gallatin Pike as she was walking to Sip Café. At the time, neighbors demanded safety measures be put in place too.
Brian said he feels like a broken record.
"Something major has got to change there,” he said. “Yes accidents do happen, but when you see this kind of frequency, you have to know; something’s got to change."
The council members said residents can help. They're asking them to vote to approve the charter which officially creates the Nashville Department of Transportation. Once that happens, the city would be able to ask for more infrastructure funding.
NDOT's spokesperson issued a statement:
"Traffic safety is NDOT’s number one priority, and one we take very seriously. We recently completed a Vision Zero Action Planning process to identify strategies to achieve zero deaths and serious injuries on our roadways. Very soon, we will be releasing a five-year implementation plan that outlines specific actions including quick-build projects that can be rapidly deployed at locations on the High Injury Network, including Gallatin Pike. A draft of that plan will be presented at today’s Transportation & Infrastructure council committee meeting at 4 p.m.
Vision Zero focuses on the five E’s: Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Evaluation & Enforcement, and these 5 E’s guide NDOT’s policy, communications, and infrastructure decisions around traffic safety.
While engineering improvements are critical to Vision Zero’s success, the other E’s play an important role in reducing crashes. Education & encouragement are vital to reminding people to use caution while driving, to slow down, and to pay attention to other people on the road, and often these crashes are the result of reckless or impaired driving.
Safety is part of everything we do, and NDOT is working hard with our partners at TDOT to address road safety issues across the city. With the implementation of our Vision Zero Plan for Nashville, we hope to achieve the very ambitious goal of zero traffic deaths and serious injuries in the future."
