Smyrna dangerous intersection: Cooper Lake Road and the East-West Connector

SMYRNA, Ga. - From small cars to big SUVs up to 18-wheelers, the intersection of Cooper Lake Road and the East-West Connector in Smyrna sees it all. If you ask Emily Michael, it is a downright dangerous place.

"It's traveled very fast, by a lot of people, and if it's not the speed, it's running red lights, and if it's not running red lights, it's low visibility turning left," she said. "It's just a perfect storm of things that can go wrong in one intersection."

Michael says things go wrong all the time. She lives just a few minutes away and drives through the intersection dozens of times per week.

"I feel like I've had a close call coming in every direction where you just let out a squeal, grip on your steering wheel, and hope you make it through in time because someone is just racing through trying to beat the light on a rush somewhere," she said.

According to numbers from the Smyrna Police Department, crashes at the intersection are constant and on the rise.

In 2021, officers responded to 43 crashes. Last year, that jumped to 55 on average. That is at least one crash a week. So far this year, there have been 35.

"My biggest concern is that I'll be driving through here at 7:00 in the morning with my daughter, and we will have someone cruise through a red light and slam into us on the way to school," Michael said.

The city of Smyrna says it is working with Cobb County to improve safety along the East-West Connector. After a traffic study, the city says the Cooper Lake Road intersection was identified as a high priority for fixes.

"I really hope they do something soon so that we can save other people from being in danger and make all of us feel safer when we're driving in and out of our neighborhood," Michael said.

A Smyrna spokeswoman says the county and city are finalizing the design on fixes and hope to begin preliminary engineering by the end of the year.