NATCHEZ — Residents who live near the end of the Natchez Trace Parkway at Liberty Road say a number of car accidents there has them concerned about drivers’ safety — as well as their own.

The latest reported wreck occurred Wednesday when a Texas man ran off the road as he was coming around the curve at the end of the Trace. The man hit a tree head-on but was not injured.

The tree the man hit was approximately 200-300 feet from Page Sauls’ house on the corner of Peachtree Drive and Laurel Avenue.

“That’s the farthest distance (away) any accident has happened,” she said.

Sauls said she sees drivers run off the road at the end of the Trace very frequently.

“One SUV flipped three times at the end of my driveway,” she said.

Unless a driver frequently travels the Trace, Sauls said, it is difficult for people to know the Trace ends there. Sauls said she believes warning signs should be placed before the curve.

A sign does warn drivers that the Trace ends a mile before the end of the roadway. After that sign, traveling toward Natchez the speed limit decrease to 35 mph and eventually drops to 20 mph before the curve.

“(The speed limit) is well within the safe zone,” said Natchez Trace Parkway Interim Superintendent Dale Wilkerson.

Wilkerson said he is unaware that section of the Trace has caused problems for drivers.

“I do have to say that every auto accident (there) does not come across my desk,” he said.

Peachtree Drive resident DeMarie Walters said she believes signs should be posted to warn drivers of the dangerous curve, as well as a guardrail installed.

Walters said she has lived in her house for four years and knows of at least 15 accidents in which drivers ran off the road in the curve.

Peachtree Drive resident Mary McGee said her 10-year-old daughter plays in the field that is near her house beside the Trace. That field is where the cars that run off the end of the Trace often wind up, which McGee said worries her.

“I’ve told her that she can’t go down there anymore,” she said.

McGee also said she believes that a guardrail and warning signs would increase safety at the end of the Trace.

Wilkerson said his staff would look into safety concerns at the end of the Trace.

“If we have an issue down there, I’ll definitely have our engineers look at it, and we’ll investigate it,” he said.