ODOT redesigning deadly Tishomingo intersection

TISHOMINGO, Okla. (KXII) - Over the last year, the Tishomingo intersection where six teens were killed in a crash with a semi has been subject to many changes, including lowering speed limits, repainting the stripes on the road and rumble strips.

Now, ODOT wants to take it a step further with a complete redesign.

“We don’t want to experience it on the roadways, so anything we can do to kind of make roadways safer, we’re always going to try to do,” said Bryce Boyer, a public information officer for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

Six Tishomingo high school teens collided with a semi hauling gravel in March 2022.

A toxicology report came back with the driver of the vehicle testing positive for cannabis, but the crash sparked an outcry with others saying the intersection has long been dangerous.

“Traveling public is always our top priority, you know, that at the end of the day that is what we want to focus on, and so if we can, if we can look at intersections and we can look at roadways, and we can redesign and rework and make them safer, we definitely will,” said Boyer.

ODOT brought on a design firm called Freese and Nichols to rethink the intersection.

“This area is definitely a high priority for us, so we’re actually expediting the process a little bit,” said Boyer.

Normally, ODOT said restructuring an intersection falls into an eight year plan, but the department wants to make it happen in three.

“We have some ideas on what the interchange could look like, what might work for that intersection, but we’re not going to tell the city what it needs to do and what’s best for it,” said Boyer. “We want to hear from the public.”

ODOT said a it expects a public meeting either in late 2023 or early 2024, with construction coming as soon as 2026.

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