Make Hwy 5 Safer by adding Guardrails
The Issue
Source, Times-Georgian Newspaper; 2016, 10-12
Residents want safer Highway 5
Arthia Nixon/Times-GeorgianUpdated Oct 12, 2016
Residents who live along Highway 5 are calling on the Carroll County Board of Commissioners and Georgia Department of Transportation to install guard rails in the area where a woman recently died.
Nita Champion has been outspoken about the danger. She said she has lived in the Lowell area for 11 years and she's lost count as to how many cars and trucks have gone into the ravines along the road. She said not everyone who went over survived.
"About two and a half weeks ago, my family and I stood on our front porch and watched the firemen in the pouring down rain, right across the road from us, pull the lifeless body of a beautiful young girl out of a ravine right across the road in that stretch of highway from west Duncan Road," she said.
The accident on Sept. 18 involved a 2004 Ford Mustang traveling east on Highway 5. The driver, 21-year-old Amber Harrison, lost control and left the roadway. According to reports, the car rotated counterclockwise as it continued east off the roadway, then struck a large tree with its passenger side and came to a rest. Harrison died of her injuries a short time later at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton. She was the only occupant of the vehicle.
Champion said she did not know Harrison personally even though she lived down the road from her. She said if proper guard rails were in place, she feels Harrison and the others who have been killed on the road would have had a better chance of surviving. On the portion of the highway where the accident occurred, Champion said, there is only about a yard of soil from the edge of the pavement to the ravine.
"Now you come down my road and your wheel goes up off the pavement, you're gone," said Champion. "I understand that Highway 5 is under the state highway department, but it does go through Carroll County. We've got people losing their property and getting injured and dying. ... I don't know how much a guard rail costs and I really don't care. You can't put a price on that little girl's life or all the other people who died. It's so important. ... I'm very thankful none of my family members have gone into that ravine."
Highway 5 is a state highway, but Champion is asking the Carroll County Board of Commissioners to use its influence to put up a guard rail, even if it is a very short one.
BOC Chairman Marty Smith said the Georgia Department of Transportation has been in touch with Carroll County and provided three dates when it will be in the area. He said that even though they were scheduled to be looking at other projects, he will invite them to review that area of Highway 5 as well. He said said that he has also been in touch with Charles Pope, superintendent of Carroll County Public Works, Roads and Solid Waste, to make him aware of the situation.
"There is nothing we can do because that is the Georgia Department of Transportation," said Smith. "They (GDOT) are coming down on the 19th to look at several other projects in the county and when they come, we will personally take them down there to look at the concern."
Amber was our friend, sister, mother, daughter, granddaughter and business owner. She lived her life to the fullest until it was cut too short that rainey, September night. And thats pretty much it in a nutshell.
The section of hwy 5 that is in question holds water on both sides of the road to the point of taking the lives of those around us that we love because they hit that water and hydroplane right off the roadway.
I have now had two neighbors, one on either side of me have an automobile accident at the same section of road. One went off on the mobile home side, totaled her BMW and broke her foot. The other, off into the revine on the other side of the road, she unfortunately did NOT walk away from that accident. Now her sweet daughter must grow up without her mother.
Those who are not prepared...or forget...or just dont know...are driving up on unsafe conditions and in some cases its proven to be fatal.
My proposed action would be to add guardrails, I believe they could be of much help in this situation. Lets get them put up and STOP losing those we love because they go off that revine.
In loving memory:
Amber Karmen Harrison
Petition Closed
The Issue
Source, Times-Georgian Newspaper; 2016, 10-12
Residents want safer Highway 5
Arthia Nixon/Times-GeorgianUpdated Oct 12, 2016
Residents who live along Highway 5 are calling on the Carroll County Board of Commissioners and Georgia Department of Transportation to install guard rails in the area where a woman recently died.
Nita Champion has been outspoken about the danger. She said she has lived in the Lowell area for 11 years and she's lost count as to how many cars and trucks have gone into the ravines along the road. She said not everyone who went over survived.
"About two and a half weeks ago, my family and I stood on our front porch and watched the firemen in the pouring down rain, right across the road from us, pull the lifeless body of a beautiful young girl out of a ravine right across the road in that stretch of highway from west Duncan Road," she said.
The accident on Sept. 18 involved a 2004 Ford Mustang traveling east on Highway 5. The driver, 21-year-old Amber Harrison, lost control and left the roadway. According to reports, the car rotated counterclockwise as it continued east off the roadway, then struck a large tree with its passenger side and came to a rest. Harrison died of her injuries a short time later at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton. She was the only occupant of the vehicle.
Champion said she did not know Harrison personally even though she lived down the road from her. She said if proper guard rails were in place, she feels Harrison and the others who have been killed on the road would have had a better chance of surviving. On the portion of the highway where the accident occurred, Champion said, there is only about a yard of soil from the edge of the pavement to the ravine.
"Now you come down my road and your wheel goes up off the pavement, you're gone," said Champion. "I understand that Highway 5 is under the state highway department, but it does go through Carroll County. We've got people losing their property and getting injured and dying. ... I don't know how much a guard rail costs and I really don't care. You can't put a price on that little girl's life or all the other people who died. It's so important. ... I'm very thankful none of my family members have gone into that ravine."
Highway 5 is a state highway, but Champion is asking the Carroll County Board of Commissioners to use its influence to put up a guard rail, even if it is a very short one.
BOC Chairman Marty Smith said the Georgia Department of Transportation has been in touch with Carroll County and provided three dates when it will be in the area. He said that even though they were scheduled to be looking at other projects, he will invite them to review that area of Highway 5 as well. He said said that he has also been in touch with Charles Pope, superintendent of Carroll County Public Works, Roads and Solid Waste, to make him aware of the situation.
"There is nothing we can do because that is the Georgia Department of Transportation," said Smith. "They (GDOT) are coming down on the 19th to look at several other projects in the county and when they come, we will personally take them down there to look at the concern."
Amber was our friend, sister, mother, daughter, granddaughter and business owner. She lived her life to the fullest until it was cut too short that rainey, September night. And thats pretty much it in a nutshell.
The section of hwy 5 that is in question holds water on both sides of the road to the point of taking the lives of those around us that we love because they hit that water and hydroplane right off the roadway.
I have now had two neighbors, one on either side of me have an automobile accident at the same section of road. One went off on the mobile home side, totaled her BMW and broke her foot. The other, off into the revine on the other side of the road, she unfortunately did NOT walk away from that accident. Now her sweet daughter must grow up without her mother.
Those who are not prepared...or forget...or just dont know...are driving up on unsafe conditions and in some cases its proven to be fatal.
My proposed action would be to add guardrails, I believe they could be of much help in this situation. Lets get them put up and STOP losing those we love because they go off that revine.
In loving memory:
Amber Karmen Harrison
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on October 13, 2016