A man and boy were killed in a fiery car crash over the weekend. The intersection where it happened, Louisburg and Fox roads, was already on a list of roads to be improved by North Carolina Department of Transportation.
NCDOT told CBS 17 they were first alerted about the Raleigh intersection about a year and a half ago. Officials said they’ve got a plan that should improve safety.
Each day drivers turn onto Louisburg Road from Fox Road, but Sunday morning, as 59-year-old Francisco Jaquez tried making that same turn, his car was slammed into by another.
Jaquez and Alfred Rodriguez Inoa, 9, died. Three people in the other vehicle were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
“We’re heartbroken by what took place,” NCDOT Regional Traffic Engineer John Grant said Monday.
But before Sunday’s wreck, NCDOT was already planning to make improvements to the intersection.
“It’s a six-lane divided facility and it’s probably challenging to make a left out of there,” Grant said.
From the beginning of 2013 to the end of 2017, NCDOT reported a total of 63 crashes. None of them were deadly.
“It is a high number and we’ve got a plan in place to hopefully improve and implement and make that intersection as safe as we can,” Grant said.
NCDOT is proposing what’s called a ‘super street’.
“You can still make your left turns on 401 onto Fox Road in both directions, but it will prohibit lefts out from the side street or going through,” Grant explained.
An example of one is on U.S. 401 near Ten Ten Road, but there are several in Raleigh.
Grant said, “safety is our number one priority.”
It will cost $400,000, and crews hope to have it finished by 2020, if not sooner.
Officials with the NCDOT will be hosting a public meeting Tuesday to talk proposed intersection improvements at Fox Road and Louisburg Road.
The meeting was planned before the crash.
The meeting is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at St. Matthews Baptist Church at 5410 Louisburg Road in Raleigh.
