In less than two weeks, three people have been seriously injured or killed in accidents along one of Johnson County’s busiest roads.
All three accidents happened near Curry Road along State Road 135, a busy north-south route that thousands of commuters drive each day heading to and from Indianapolis.
Around 6:30 a.m. Monday, a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle while crossing State Road 135. The woman was taken to Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital in serious condition, White River Township Fire Chief Jeremy Pell said.
Last week, 17-year-old Sarah Kish, a Center Grove High School junior, was killed after a crash in the same area of State Road 135 when her vehicle was struck in the driver’s side door by another vehicle. And on Feb. 9, a 27-year-old man was taken to a hospital with two broken legs and a neck injury after he was hit by a car while standing in the center turn lane.
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All three accidents happened near Curry Road, where multiple apartments and other businesses are located.
State Road 135 currently lacks crosswalks in Greenwood, but the state is planning to install new crosswalks soon. Last fall, the Indiana Department of Transportation announced plans to add crosswalks at Menard Drive, County Line Road and Meridian Park Drive with work potentially starting later this year.
Local officials have asked for crosswalks in the past to make the area safer for pedestrians.
Currently, when pedestrians attempt to get across State Road 135, they will stop in the center turn lane and wait for traffic to clear before crossing the other half of the road, Pell said.
But that is unsafe since so many vehicles use that turn lane when making a left turn along State Road 135, Pell said.
More sidewalks, crosswalks, turn lanes and left turn signals would make the section of State Road 135 near Curry Road safer for pedestrians and drivers, according to one woman who works along the major route.
Angela Herzog, a business assistant at Honey Grove Family Dentistry, said traffic on State Road 135 has become much worse than when she first started working in the area more than a decade ago.
The crashes in the past month have made her be more cautious as a driver, and she makes sure to be more aware of her surroundings and what other drivers are doing, Herzog said.
One area of concern for Herzog is exiting the dentist office, which is at the northeast corner of Olive Branch Road and State Road 135.
She’s been nearly hit more than once when trying to cross State Road 135 on Olive Branch Road because drivers turning onto the highway don’t always notice vehicles coming out of the area where the dentist office and other offices are located, she said. She’d like for the intersection to limit left turns for drivers on Olive Branch Road to green arrows.
