This paper describes an IEEE 802.15.4-based hierarchical sensor network model for a VAWS(Vehicle Approach Warning System) which provides the drivers of vehicles approaching a sharp turn with the information about vehicles approaching the same turn from the opposite end. In the proposed network model, a tree-structured topology, that can prolong the lifetime of network is formed in a self-organizing manner by a topology control protocol. A simple but efficient routing protocol, that creates and maintains routing tables based on the network topology organized by the topology control protocol, transports data packets generated from the sensor nodes to the base station which then forwards it to a display processor. These protocols are designed as a network layer extension to the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC. In the simulation, which models a scenario with a sharp turn, it is shown that the proposed network model achieves a high-level performance in terms of both energy efficiency and throughput simultaneously.