Law enforcement stepping up patrols near intersection where Glenpool boy killed in crash

Law enforcement and city leaders are trying to make an intersection safer after a nine-year-old boy was killed in a crash on Monday.

>>> 9-year-old Glenpool student killed in multi-vehicle crash on Highway 67

Tulsa County deputies were out on Tuesday writing tickets for people speeding on 151st near Highway 75.

Deputies say over the past few months, they’ve been writing tickets for people making illegal U-turns there, but on Tuesday, they wanted to make sure people were slowing down.

Related: Glenpool city leaders calling for changes at intersection where Monday fatal crash kills nine-year-old boy

DANGEROUS ROAD

Glenpool Police say the stretch of road between Highway 75 and Lewis is the most dangerous in the city because of high speed limits and the lack of stoplights.

"You have east and westbound traffic trying to drop kids off at school, on top of your normal flow of traffic for people trying to get to work, home after work, things of that nature,” said Chief Jeremy Plane with Glenpool Police. “So at any given time during the morning rush or evening rush, when school's out, you are going to see a huge increase in traffic."

The goal for city leaders is to figure out how to make 151st safer and do it quickly.

"With that, we know some of these changes take time,” said David Tillotson, the Glenpool City Manager. “We're dealing with a state budget. That is not an immediate process sometimes. It does take some time to work through the system and get that done. But what we are calling on today as part of this is immediately asking ODOT to begin an implementation of a reduced speed limit on this corridor.”

SPEED PATROLS

Tulsa County deputies were out during the morning rush hour on Tuesday, pulling people over for speeding through the area.

"It is a higher speed zone,” said Major Travis Jones with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office. “It's wide-open road, and they're coming off a rural area in that county between Bixby and Glenpool, so they do have a propensity to exceed the speed limit."

Jones says with school back in full swing, it’s important to make sure people are paying attention to more traffic on certain roads, like 151st, especially during rush hour.

"If there's high congestion, slow down a little bit,” said Jones. “Pay attention to what's around you. Be aware of the drivers that may be in that area. That is a high school area. There's lots of young drivers."

THE DATA

Glenpool Police say the crashes on 151st are becoming more of a problem.

It released this data:

1. 2021- 56 crashes on 151st out of 478 crashes city-wide
2. 2022- 64 crashes on 151st out of 450 crashes city-wide
3. 2023- 82 crashes on 151st out of 528 crashes city-wide
4. 2024- 83 crashes on 151st out of 484 crashes city-wide
5. 2025- 70 crashes on 151st out of 366 crashes city-wide

This brings the number of crashes on 151st to a total of 355 during the years of 2021-2025.

GPD also says there was at least one fatality crash on this road each year.