Serious East Dallas Crash Renews Neighbors Calls For Change

A serious crash over the weekend in East Dallas has renewed neighbors' calls for safer streets.

Dallas police were called to a serious crash along Garland Road at Lakeland Drive around 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed by Dallas police, 22-year-old Arianna Alvarez was driving drunk and fast when she crashed into the back of a GMC Terrain stopped at the light on Garland Road.

The force of the crash caused the GMC Terrain to roll and flip upside down.

Four people inside the GMC Terrain were taken to the hospital, including two women with serious injuries.

Alvarez was also taken to the hospital in critical condition. She faces two counts of intoxication assault with serious bodily injury.

Natalie Montgomery lives nearby and has petitioned the city for changes along Garland Road and nearby Ferguson Road after multiple deadly wrecks.

Neighbors have long complained people drive too fast - some in a hurry and others street racing.

“It’s become such a speedway that at night we can hear the racing for hours and it’s become a normal thing,” Montgomery said.

Garland Road runs through East Dallas, but it’s also State Highway 78 and falls under the Texas Department of Transportation oversight.

“When this road was built it was built as a highway between Dallas and Garland and it’s still six lanes. It does not make sense,” said Dallas city council member Paula Blackmon. “The speeds are crazy and we’ve got to work on traffic calming measures.”

Blackmon said the state’s oversight limits engineering changes the city can make to Garland Road, but she remains hopeful the city and state can find solutions.

The area has become increasingly busy attracting pedestrians to White Rock Lake and to the many small businesses that have opened in recent years.

A city spokesperson said the transportation department is working on community concerns over Garland Road between I-635 and I-30, adding the city will be working with TxDOT and the North Central Texas Council of Governments to study part of Garland Road from the Garland/Gaston/Grand intersection to I-30.

The city also said it’s improved traffic signals from N. Buckner Blvd to Northwest Highway and plans to add a new traffic signal at the intersection of Emerald Isle Drive and Garland Road.

Montgomery said she’ll keep speaking up.

“If we don’t act we’re going to continue to have fatal accidents,” Montgomery said.

Blackmon said a corridor study of nearby Ferguson Road is nearly complete and engineers will present ideas to the community on ways to make it safer later this spring.