MADISON — Two left-hand turning lanes at the intersection of U.S. Route 201 and White School House Road will save someone’s life one day, said the owner of a nearby business.

Jerry Morin, owner of Morin’s Auto Sales, said over the last 50 years he has seen many accidents, both minor and severe, involving motorcycles, cars and logging trucks at the intersection known as Clough’s Corner.

“They should have done this years ago because there’s been an awful lot of accidents and an awful lot of near accidents,” Morin said.

The Maine Department of Transportation plans to install two turning lanes on U.S. Route 201. Bidding on the $550,000 to $750,000 project will start this September, with construction likely completed by the fall of 2012, said Mark Latti, a spokesman for the department.

“If you’re coming north or south on 201 there will be a left-hand turning lane, along with a center island to help divide traffic,” he said. “It’s a 50 mile per hour speed limit there, so if you have people turning left or stopping to make a left turn, there’s always the potential for a rear-end crash.”

An average of about 8,900 vehicles per day travel past that intersection on U.S. Route 201, Latti said. About 4,500 vehicles per day drive on White School House Road, also called Route 148.

The Hight Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealership, owned by the Hight family, has been at the intersection for about five years. Walter Hight said turning lanes will make the area safer.

It’s “a good idea to have a turning lane there because people are driving pretty fast,” he said. A year ago a vehicle evading police in a high speed chase crashed into three of the company’s vehicles lined up by the road.

Two people were injured in a logging truck crash at the intersection in October of 2009. The loaded pulp truck was traveling south when it struck a car on the driver’s side. That car appeared to have been traveling east from downtown Madison, according to news archives.

Erin Rhoda — 612-2368

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