MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Milledgeville has many wrecks around the Dunlap and North Jefferson intersection, city manager Hank Griffeth says.
For Milledgeville resident Kayla Brownlow, she says her family experienced this firsthand. On those roads, she says the cars drive fast.
She never thought her husband and daughter would be in a wreck. She says her husband was driving to his daughter’s school when a truck T-boned them.
“They turned directly in front of them to go to Dunlap. Completely hit them on the side, totaled my husband's truck, totaled the car that hit them,” she says. “Unfortunately that car caught on fire.”
She said the airbags went off and thankfully her daughter and husband had their seatbelts.
She says her husband and daughter physically were fine, but mentally it was tough. Her husband is more cautious with driving and does not like being near the intersection, she says.
After the crash, she said she went to the city council the very next week to propose a roundabout for the intersection.
“My immediate suggestion was a roundabout, I think that would be ideal because it keeps people driving slower,” she says. “Everyone's gonna go I think 20 miles per hour.”
She says people drive too fast down the intersection and forget to yield and that’s why she suggested a roundabout.
Griffeth, the city manager of Milledgeville, says he wants to prioritize safety. He says he thinks roundabouts would help with the traffic and wrecks at the intersection at Dunlap and North Jefferson.
Griffeth says he thinks it is a great idea.
“If you look at stats, you see that collisions at intersections are greatly reduced by roundabouts," Griffeth said. "I think there's a lot of factual data for those that suggest that they're a good pick."
Griffeth hopes to discuss this more with the city council on Sept. 24. The roundabouts have not been proposed yet.