A traffic study is underway on Pea Ridge and Old Phoenix roads.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard R. Sills said he is conducting the study because of what he considers high traffic volumes and vehicle crashes on those two roads, and is considering reducing the speed limits.
“It was already lowered on Old Phoenix between Wards Chapel Road and Highway 44, but the traffic has increased significantly, so it needs to be lowered again,” Sills said. “And we are having way too many accidents on both of those roads.”
A traffic study is required before any changes can be made, said Putnam County Manager Paul Van Haute. So, a county-owned, solar-powered traffic monitor was set up on the 700 block of Pea Ridge Road to gather the intel.
“The sign flashes what speed you’re traveling, and it also tracks the data and counts the number of vehicles,” Van Haute explained.
At the newspaper’s press time on Tuesday, Sills was still in the process of compiling the data on vehicle crashes, related injuries, and deaths. He said in the past four years, there were 167 vehicle crashes on Pea Ridge Road, in which 88 people were injured, and seven were killed.
Sills said he is still pulling statistics of crashes that happened at the intersections of Pea Ridge and Possum Point, Scuffleboro Road, Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, and Oconee Springs Road.
The numbers were not as high on Old Phoenix Road, which had 61 vehicle crashes, 28 injuries, and no fatalities in the past four years.
“So, I’m not seeing a very big increase over the last four years, but I think it’s going to be a hell of an increase over the same scenario from 10 years ago,” he said. “It’s all due to just the sheer volume of cars alone, in my opinion.”
Sheriff Sills also said he is looking into how many 18-wheeler trucks travel on those roads and on all county roads.