Councilwoman promises action to fix deadly bus stop

ATLANTA — Changes are expected near a bus stop where two people have died in recent months.

Keanna Shields Bentley died when a car hit her at the bus stop on Pryor Road and Amal Drive in southwest Atlanta in May.%

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Until Monday, the roads leading up to the intersection didn't have double yellow lines.

That's one of the several steps one city leader says has to be made after two unthinkable tragedies.

There are plenty pictures of Keanna Shields Bentley at her birthday party over the weekend but only because it's all her family has left of her.

She would have turned 22-years-old on Monday and Shields’ baby girl would have been about three months old by now.

“My baby was so excited as far as being a mom,” said Angela Shields, Keanna’s mother.

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They're trying to celebrate but it's hard not to think about the car that jumped a curb and killed her in May while she waited for a bus.

“I lost my mind. I believe any parent that lose their child would lose their mind,” Keanna’s father Clayton Holland told Channel 2’s Matt Johnson.

Her death would not be the last at the intersection of Pryor and Amal.

Eleven days ago a driver jumped a curb and killed 58-year-old Annie Cole while she waited for a bus to go to work.

“Seeing this every day, it's like an open wound, just opening and opening every time something happens there,” said Angela Shields.

“I immediately began to say, ‘we have to do something,’” said Atlanta City Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd.

Sheperd said she had stop signs installed at the intersection a year-and-a-half ago because of speeding concerns.

“Now we realized the stop signs are not going to do it,” Sheperd told Johnson.

She has a proposal to move two bus stops, add rumble strips and bring a red light at the intersection to slow down drivers.

“Then they realize that it’s a stop sign, then they’re trying to stop at the last minute and then their car is skidding out of control,” Sheperd said.

Angela Shields told Johnson the changes won't bring anybody back but it could prevent a third tragedy.

“I can sleep knowing that somebody else family can be saved from going through what I’m going through,” Shields said.

Sheperd told Johnson she hopes to have a red light installed in the intersection within the next month-and-a-half.

Police said the driver in May's crash was not charged because he had a medical emergency and the most recent crash is still under investigation.

Cox Media Group