GADSDEN, Ala. — A twelve-hour standoff at the intersection of Broad Street and Fourth Avenue ended peacefully Thursday evening when one of the two drivers involved nodded slightly and the other accepted the gesture as legally binding.
The incident began at 8:47 a.m. following the City of Gadsden's ongoing conversion of downtown traffic signals into four-way stop signs, a measure city planners said would improve traffic flow and better reflect changing downtown patterns.
City planners did not account for Gadsden.
Gerald Hooks, 61, of East Gadsden, arrived at the intersection in his 2019 Chevrolet Silverado at precisely the same moment as Darlene Faulkner, 58, of Attalla, who was driving a 2008 Buick LeSabre she purchased from a gentleman at her church. Both vehicles rolled to a full and complete stop. Both drivers then raised one hand approximately six inches off the steering wheel in a gesture that was polite, open-palmed, and completely indeterminate as to intent.
Neither moved.
"I thought she got there first," Hooks told reporters afterward.
"He was clearly there first," Faulkner said, from a separate area.
Neither was correct. Traffic investigators later confirmed the arrival was simultaneous to within four one-hundredths of a second.
By 9:30 a.m. a line of vehicles stretched from the intersection back to the Gadsden Mall. By 11:00 a.m. a man on Rainbow Drive had walked outside to investigate the noise, concluded there was no noise, and gone back inside. By hour three, a woman in a Toyota Camry fourteen cars back had put it in park and begun reading a novel she had brought with her for a different reason.
The First Baptist Church of Gadsden youth group arrived at 3:15 p.m. with a cooler of lukewarm potato salad and twelve paper plates. Youth director Todd Skaggs said he was not certain what the situation was but that service felt called for.
"We just went where the need was," Skaggs said.
The potato salad was distributed without incident. Gerald Hooks accepted a plate. Darlene Faulkner declined but said it smelled good.
Traffic resumed at 8:51 p.m. when Hooks, citing an early morning obligation and the fact that his dog had been home alone since before lunch, allowed his vehicle to roll forward at approximately two miles per hour. Faulkner waved in acknowledgment. Hooks returned the wave. The exchange was described by witnesses as genuinely warm.
City officials said the intersection will now feature updated signage clarifying standard right-of-way protocol. The sign will read: FOUR-WAY STOP. It will not contain additional information.
"We believe in the judgment of Gadsden's drivers," said city spokesperson Lena Tate.
Hooks and Faulkner have reportedly not spoken since but have no hard feelings.
