By Beth Rousseau.

Senator Charles Schumer is calling for transportation safety audit at the site of a deadly truck crash in Ithaca.


The Senator says last summer's accident was a wake up call, and he's asking the Federal Highway Administration and the New York State Department of Transportation to team up to enhance safety at the intersection.


"Last summer we faced a tragedy that cost us the life of a young woman but also cost us our own sense of security," says Svante Myrick, Mayor of Ithaca.


Last June, 27 year old Amanda Bush was killed and 7 others were injured when a tractor trailer lost control and crashed into Simeon's on the Commons restaurant in Ithaca.


Myrick says, "You can't come into Ithaca without coming down a hill and all hills end in the flats in downtown Ithaca. That could have been any of us."


This accident is not the first to occur at the at the intersection of Route 96 B and Route 79. In fact it's the 3rd major truck accident in the past six years.


"Truck accidents at this intersection are a persistent problem, and we know as sure as we're here they'll continue if nothing is done," says Senator Schumer.


According to Schumer this audit would further the efforts of the the Tompkins County Truck Safety Committee, which was formed after the accident.


Schumer says, "The audit would analyze the design of the road, the traffic flow, the mix among many other characteristics in order to determine which safety recommendations make the most sense... what would best serve the City of Ithaca."


Schumer also says that he will also be pushing the FHWA to put federal highway dollars toward the project to make sure this summer's accident was not in vain.