DeSoto County officials are pressing the state for a decision on installing a traffic signal at an intersection in the town of Walls where two people have been killed.

James Sullivan, assistant state traffic engineer for Mississippi Department of Transportation in Jackson, said a study of intersection must wait into the fall so analysts can get a traffic count that reflects school-year use by the DeSoto system in Walls.

County government and school officials have been pressing for months to get a traffic signal at U.S. Highway 61 and Delta View Road after a school cafeteria worker was killed in April.

U.S. Highway 61 is a federal highway and Delta View is a county road, but county road manager Russell Dorris says the intersection in west DeSoto County is under MDOT control.

Dorris says there have been two deaths and at least 16 incidents at the intersection in the last five years.

Dorris says the MDOT has rules on what a traffic count must be to warrant a signal, and other factors, such as proximity to businesses, churches and schools, and history of accidents, are also weighed.

“I’m not telling MDOT how to do their business, but they should just tell us if they’re not going to do it, and then we can do what we need to do,” said board of supervisors president Bill Russell.