Red Sea parts as highway opens
by January 25, 1999 12:00 am 53 views
The opening of Interstate 540 from Alma to Fayetteville on Jan. 8 was hailed by state television newscasts as something akin to the second coming of Christ.
KHBS/KHOG, Channels 40/29 played the hymn “Hallelujah!” as the station showed cars driving through the newly opened Bobby Hopper Tunnel near Winslow.
Even stranger was the question posed to state Sen. David Malone, D-Fayetteville, by a reporter from KTHV, Channel 11 in Little Rock. At the dedication, the reporter asked Malone a couple of questions before posing a real mindbender: “Won’t this new highway make it easier for drug dealers to get up here?”
Another local television station warned drivers about deer along the highway. The deer “aren’t used to traffic,” the anchorman surmised.