The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) confirmed Wednesday that a traffic signal and other safety upgrades will soon be installed at the intersection of Texas 114 and Alliance Boulevard — two months after the death of an 8-year-old renewed calls to make the intersection safer.
Shawna Russell Jones, TxDOT’s Northwest Texas Communications director, said the project will include installing a traffic signal, roadway illumination, and multiple sets of advanced warning signs.
“Safety remains TxDOT’s top priority,” Russell Jones said. “Design work for the traffic signal project at the intersection of 114 and Alliance Boulevard has been underway for several months. [..] In the near term, barricades are being placed within the work area, and onsite work will commence early next week, weather permitting.”
Matteo Hernandez, a second grader at Northwest ISD’s Prairie View Elementary School, died Jan. 22 after the vehicle he was riding in with his grandmother was struck at the intersection.
Their sedan was turning from Texas 114 into the ByWell Estates neighborhood when it was hit on the passenger side by a pickup truck traveling along the state highway. A third vehicle was also involved.
Matteo’s grandmother suffered a broken hip and spinal fracture, but recovered after being transported to John Peter Smith hospital in Fort Worth.
Matteo’s mother, Maria Rodriguez, a kindergarten teacher at Prairie View Elementary, said the intersection had worried her for years. In the wake of her son’s death, she launched a change.org petition calling for a traffic signal at the intersection on Texas 114. That petition has gathered more than 11,900 signatures as of this week.
“From around 3 to 6 p.m., it’s impossible to cross,” Rodriguez told the Messenger in January. “It’s a four-way intersection, and there’s a huge amount of cars waiting to cross that block the view. Dozens of kids come in and out of that neighborhood. It’s a risk not only for my kids — all kids who live there. I have to speak up.”
“I hope his death can save others. My son’s not going to die in vain.”
Mom demands change after 8-year-old son killed in Texas 114 wreck
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