The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - A man whose wife and mother-in-law died last month in a crash at one of Ohio's most dangerous intersections says the accident never would have happened if the state had a more efficient way of responding to safety concerns.

"All of these deaths, these paralyses, these amputations - all of this is avoidable," Dean Johnson told The Columbus Dispatch for a story on Sunday.

Mr. Johnson's wife, Sandy, of suburban Worthington, and her mother, Jacqueline Ebert-Routch, of Columbus, were killed Oct. 5 when their car and a truck collided at Ohio 310 and Morse Road in Licking County, east of Columbus.

Since 1998, that intersection has appeared on the Ohio Department of Transportation's annual list of the 200 most dangerous crash sites. Five days after the accident that killed Mrs. Johnson, ODOT's highway safety committee approved funding for a signal at that intersection.

A few weeks after the crash, he took a leave from his job as an automobile salesman and formed the Sandy Johnson Foundation, which plans to open a Web site in mid-December with intersection and road alerts, related news items, contacts at government agencies and links to additional safety information.