OUR COMMUNITY DESERVES SAFER ROADS.
We, the undersigned residents of Lamar County, call on GDOT and our elected officials to remove commercial truck traffic from State Route 36 through Barnesville.

 

WHAT JUST HAPPENED — AND WHY IT CANNOT HAPPEN AGAIN

State Route 36 through Barnesville, Georgia is a two-lane rural road built in 1930. It was designed to connect small communities — not to carry commercial freight. For six years, our neighbors have been killed, airlifted, and hospitalized on this corridor. GDOT has responded with traffic signals. We are telling you that signals are not enough.

 

In late March 2026, after nearly two years of delays, GDOT finally activated traffic lights at the intersection of Ga. Hwy. 7 and the Hwy. 36 Bypass — an intersection the local Herald Gazette itself called ‘dangerous.’ Signal poles had sat uninstalled on the side of the road for months while our families drove through an uncontrolled intersection every single day.

 

Within days of those lights going live, a tractor-trailer struck a passenger vehicle at that intersection. A 16-year-old girl from our community was lifeflighted to a trauma center. The Georgia State Patrol found the commercial truck driver at fault.

 

MAY 2026    J&M Tank Lines tractor-trailer struck a passenger vehicle at the newly-signaled intersection of Ga. Hwy. 7 and the Hwy. 36 Bypass. A 16-year-old female was airlifted to a trauma center. GSP: the commercial truck driver was at fault. This is the most recent crash in a six-year documented pattern.

 

A traffic signal is not an adequate solution when the underlying problem is an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer on a two-lane road it was never designed for. The signal did not stop the crash. Nothing will stop the crashes until commercial trucks are removed from this corridor.

 

SIX YEARS OF DOCUMENTED CRASHES ON SR 36

The May 2026 crash is not an isolated incident. It is the latest entry in a pattern of serious crashes on SR 36 in Lamar County dating back to at least 2020. The following table presents every documented serious crash on this corridor, in chronological order, as reported by the Herald Gazette and the 

 

Sep. 2020    FATAL    Hwy. 36 East near Shiloh Baptist Church / Morgan Dairy Road area   

Head-on collision at approximately 9:26 p.m. Two fatalities confirmed: both of High Falls Park Road. Third victim transported by ambulance to Macon Medical Center. At least two of those involved were local residents.

Mar. 2021    CRITICAL    Hwy. 36 East at Eady Creek Road 

Head-on collision at 8:15 a.m. Tractor-trailer driver was transported by ambulance to Henry General. Another driver lifeflighted to Macon trauma center after being cut from his vehicle by firefighters. Second vehicle ended up in Eady Creek. NOTE: This was the SECOND serious crash at this exact location within a single week, confirming a structural hazard at this intersection.

Oct. 2022    FATAL    Hwy. 36 East near Bottoms Road   

Three-vehicle collision at approximately 7 p.m. Two confirmed fatalities. Third victim transported by ambulance to Macon Medical Center.

Oct. 2022    CRITICAL    Veterans Pkwy near Hwy. 36 Bypass (Hot Shot area)    SVC    Three-vehicle collision involving a commercial service vehicle (Orkin truck). Near head-on impact. Two victims lifeflighted to trauma center. Multiple victims had to be extricated from vehicles. Road snarled for an extended period.

Mar. 2025    INJURY    Hwy. 36 East at High Falls Park Road   

School bus carrying 33 children and six adults struck by SUV attempting a turn onto SR 36. Road blocked. Children uninjured; adult in SUV reported shoulder pain. Highlights the turning-movement hazard created by vehicles — not just trucks — attempting turns at high-speed rural intersections along the corridor.

Jun. 2025    CRITICAL    GA-36 East at the Hwy. 36 Bypass intersection, Lamar County   

Two-vehicle collision. GSP: Ford Taurus driver attempted a left turn in front of westbound Honda Pilot. Serious injuries to four adults and two children. FOUR separate lifeflight helicopters deployed. All lanes blocked approximately two hours. The scale of the response — four simultaneous lifeflight requests — reflects the severity that a 1930s two-lane road produces when vehicles interact at speed.

Sep. 2025    FATAL    Hwy. 36 Bypass / Liz Acres Road   

Head-on collision in the early morning hours. One fatality. Second victim airlifted to Macon trauma center. The Bypass and Liz Acres Road remained closed until at least 9:15 a.m.

May 2026    CRITICAL    Hwy. 7 / Hwy. 36 Bypass — newly-signaled intersection   

Tractor-trailer operated by J&M Tank Lines struck a passenger vehicle at the intersection of Ga. Hwy. 7 and the Hwy. 36 Bypass. A 16-year-old female was lifeflighted to a trauma center. GSP preliminary report: commercial truck driver at fault. Intersection had received new traffic signals within days of the crash after a GDOT rapid response project that languished for nearly two years, with signal poles sitting uninstalled on the roadside for five months.

 

SIX YEARS, EIGHT CRASHES    3 fatalities. At least 3 incidents involving commercial vehicles. Multiple lifeflight responses. Two serious crashes at the same Eady Creek Road location within a single week in 2021. Four simultaneous lifeflight helicopters deployed for a single crash in June 2025. This is not bad luck. This is a road failing the community it passes through.

 

THE DANGER YOU SEE EVERY DAY — THAT NEVER MAKES THE CRASH REPORT

The crash record above captures only incidents severe enough to generate a police report. It does not capture the daily operational hazard that every Lamar County resident recognizes: semi-trucks stopping in turning lanes into neighborhoods, breaking down in live travel lanes, and blocking the entire road for extended periods on a corridor with no adequate shoulder and no room to maneuver around an 80-foot vehicle.

This is not driver error. It is a road design mismatch. SR 36 was built for passenger vehicles. The turning geometry at residential driveways, neighborhood entrances, and business access points along the corridor is physically insufficient for tractor-trailers up to 53 feet in length. When a truck driver attempts a turn and the geometry doesn’t work, or when a vehicle breaks down, the result is an immediate full-lane blockage with no bypass option for oncoming traffic.

 

When a tractor-trailer stops in a turning lane on SR 36, the trailer projects across the oncoming lane. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, underride crashes — where a vehicle slides under a trailer — are among the most lethal outcomes in truck-passenger vehicle interactions. On SR 36, an oncoming driver has no warning, no shoulder, and nowhere to go.

 

WHAT BLOCKAGE MEANS ON SR 36  

 A stopped or turning semi blocks 100% of available traffic in one direction. There is no adequate shoulder. Emergency vehicles cannot pass. Lifeflight responders — who have been called to this corridor multiple times — cannot reach crash scenes efficiently when a commercial vehicle is blocking the road. A breakdown requiring commercial towing can leave lanes blocked for 30 to 60 minutes or more.

We ask GDOT to formally document this hazard through community testimony and an operational assessment, not just crash data. The crash statistics are the floor of the risk — not the ceiling.

 

WHAT WE ARE DEMANDING

We call on GDOT District 3, the Lamar County Commission, the City of Barnesville, and our state legislators to take the following five actions. These are not suggestions. They are the minimum necessary response to six years of documented harm on a road that Georgia built and Georgia is responsible for:

 

1.    Initiate a commercial vehicle restriction study under O.C.G.A. § 32-6-26 to formally prohibit through-truck traffic on SR 36 through Barnesville, using the crash record above and a commissioned truck percentage count as the evidentiary basis.

2.    Formally designate SR 18 / US 41 from I-75 Exit 185 (Forsyth) and SR 16 from I-75 Exit 205 as official commercial vehicle alternate routes to and from the Barnesville / US 41 corridor. GPS-based route analysis confirms SR 18 / US 41 from Exit 185 reaches Barnesville in the same time as SR 36 — it requires zero new construction. Submit both designations immediately to commercial GPS routing databases (Rand McNally Motor Carrier, PC∗MILER, Google Maps freight routing) so trucks are actively rerouted before reaching SR 36.

3.    Commission a formal commercial vehicle percentage traffic count on SR 36 in Lamar County to document the freight burden on this corridor and provide the evidentiary foundation for the restriction study.

4.    Require GDOT to include SR 36 in the Environmental Assessment for the I-75 CVL project (PI No. 0014203) — a $2.2 billion project that will place new truck ramps directly at the SR 36 interchange beginning in 2027, which will increase commercial vehicle activity on this corridor unless mitigation is planned now.

5.    Initiate a feasibility study for a new connector road between I-75 Exit 201 and the US 41 / Exit 198 corridor north of Barnesville to serve truck stop access and CVL-related truck movements without routing vehicles through SR 36. This connector aligns with the Legacy Trade Center development already planned for this corridor between Exits 201 and 198, making it both a safety mitigation and an economic development priority for Lamar County.