Effingham's Deadly Roads (home, bars, yard)

[DanielAvery]

It's been a long time since I was a teenager in Effingham County, but even back then there were a lot of traffic accidents/fatalities involving my classmates. We had three "In Memoriam" pages in my senior yearbook. Back then, there was the one high school (half-way between S'field and Guyton) for the whole county, and it was considered perfectly acceptable for one legal driver to have four or five friends ride with them to and from school. It was obvious back then that you didn't want to be on hwy 119 during the morning and afternoons, because cars full of teenagers (every teeanger in the county, essentially) were making a menace of themselves (driving too fast, passing on curves, tailgating, etc.) and this was well before the cell phone, which has added a whole new layer. Laws are everywhere trying to limit the number of people in a car being driven by a teen, but I don't think they pay a lot of attention to them.

I grew up about a mile from that intersection in Marlow. Indeed, there is no obstructed view in either direction. We'll probably never know what happened in the seconds ahead of the accident, but I do know that people get really careless on roads closest to where they live. It seems the closer you get to your house, the more "comfortable" you get and perhaps a bit careless. You also have to keep in mind that even the busiest roads in the county are criss-crossed by slow, country roads that wind through residential (or even wooded) areas, and sometimes you forget that certain roads need a lot more attention than others. There is the much slower "old" Highway 17 running parallel to regular 17 in that area, and the two roads could not be more different.

Now I'm not about to say the whole problem is self-involved, careless teenagers. I think the wrecks involving teens get more coverage simply because the media seems to obsess over tragedies involving children. I had a family member get killed on a sharp curve on Highway 30 because some idiot crossed the center line and hit him head-on. The guy was not a teenager by any stretch, nor was he drunk, and the weather was okay. The curve had been scary before that happened, but nothing was done to change its "sharpness" until many years (and many other accidents) later. I think the DOT doesn't really react to badly-constructed stretches of road until a body count piles up, which is sad but unfortunately very common. I absolutely cannot stand going through the intersection of BlueJay Road and Midland Road because of its well-earned reputation as a death trap. They've put up the flashing caution light, billboard-sized stop signs, rumble strips, lowered the speed limits practically to zero, and did everything they can think of, yet people traveling BlueJay still breeze right through without stopping. Unlike that sharp curve I mentioned, where they added shoulders to the road and trimmed the woods to help visibility, there is nothing more that can be done to Midland/BlueJay short of putting up a traffic light (which would be odd out in the middle of nowhere) or just closing the road (again, not a viable option).

As Effingham grows, stress is being placed on many roads that never had so many cars/traffic on them, and some people can't really change their mindset of certain roads being "country roads" and haven't adopted the same sort of vigilance that they might have if they were traveling in Chatham.

[ellie]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

WJCL just reported that there have been sixteen (16!) traffic fatalities in Effingham so far this year, and half of them have involved teen-age drivers! Good lord almighty, for a community the size of Effingham, that's an epidemic! I'm surprised this hasn't made the news beyond Savannah. (I was in Atlanta last weekend, and there wasn't a single mention on the ATL news or in the paper about the 3 brothers killed.)

So clearly, about half the problem can be blamed on careless kids. The other half? Bad roads? Poor signage? Stupid adults?

Inbreeding? Socioeconomic status? Arrogant disregard for law?

I think it has a lot to do with people who feel the need to live on the edge of society. They can't be bothered with the needs of the general populace. I'm not sure which stop sign the kid "missed" in Marlow but it sounds like he knew the area well enough. He RAN the stop sign and went straight out into a heavily traveled road. Tragic, but obviously avoidable.

[counterclockwise]

I looked over the intersection again where the three fatalities occurred Thursday and I notice the County has failed to maintain the stop bar. This could allow someone to overshoot where they are supposed to stop. A lot of Effingham County roads are poorly striped.

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by DanielAvery

As Effingham grows, stress is being placed on many roads that never had so many cars/traffic on them, and some people can't really change their mindset of certain roads being "country roads" and haven't adopted the same sort of vigilance that they might have if they were traveling in Chatham.

^^^ THIS! Considering that Effingham County is pushing 60,000 people, it's pretty ludicrous that there's really only TWO ways into the county from Savannah, where all the jobs are (unless you drive out I-16 to River Road, etc.) Whatever happened to that planned Effingham Connector? The county needs MAJOR road improvements, big time. Had the ignorant Tea Party voters in this region not voted down the T-Splost, a lot of these road upgrades would be in the beginning phases by now.

Another thing that's always puzzled me: Why the hell is South Effingham High School where it is? The majority of the student population lives in Rincon, about 13 miles away from the school! The only way to get there is to go narrow, winding, back roads. For some residents, you actually have to go into Chatham County and then come BACK into Effingham County to get to SEHS! It's insane! IMO, a lot of these teen-age accidents are the result of high school kids speeding and driving recklessly down these country roads to and from school, when both high schools could have easily been built in more central locations.

[DanielAvery]

From what I've been told (and it may or may not be true), South Effingham HS and MS were built where they were because the county got a good $deal$ on the land. They anticipated more growth in the southern half of the county (for obvious reasons) and "prime" land in that area was mostly already bought up in anticipation of development. Effingham has this odd track record with trying to find places to build government buildings like that, probably because owners of the most advantageous properties will hold out for huge sums of money and the county will decide to go elsewhere rather than be "held hostage".

I looked over the intersection again where the three fatalities occurred Thursday and I notice the County has failed to maintain the stop bar. This could allow someone to overshoot where they are supposed to stop. A lot of Effingham
County roads are poorly striped.

That intersection is actually a surprising place for such an accident to occur due to its layout (stop bars or not) so it's unfortunate that driver error is more likely more to blame than any geographical or engineering problem.

To be fair, it's only been in the last decade or so that a lot of roads have been paved, much less striped. In Marlow/Pineora there was/is not much political clout to demand road improvements/upgrades. Marlow Road was a dirt road for the longest time, and was only properly paved and given some improvements when locals discovered it was a convenient short-cut between Sandhill Road and Midland Road. Many roads in the area (including the one I grew up on) were "paved" with some sort of ash substance in the late 1990s that doesn't allow stripes to adhere to it, but residents were happy not to have a muddy mess every time it rained so they'll take what they can get. Roads in small communities like Marlow and Pineora have their quirks, owing to their low traffic and long history, and change is slow to come because the residents (basically the only people who use those roads) are accustomed to the quirks and have adjusted to them.

[counterclockwise]

Marlow road was paved because adjoining land owners gave the county the necessary right of way. I know one land owner deeded several acres to the county.

[ellie]

I drove through Marlow this morning on my way out of town, but couldn't really slow down to look more closely. Looks to me like the explosion and fire occurred a hundred yards or more south of the Sandhill Rd. intersection where several smaller roads intersect with 17.

Has anyone actually read the accident report? Did the guy run into the side of the tanker or did it hit him? The stop bars at Sandhill are less worn than I expected. Did it happen exactly there or was that just a reference point?

[counterclockwise]

The impact occurred at the Intersection of Sandhill and GA 17. The Tanker apparently dragged the pickup over block and a half in a ball of fire before coming to a stop.

[counterclockwise]

Another serious wreck today in Marlow at the same intersection. A pickup reportedly ran the same stop sign where the three fatalities occurred a week or so ago and got smashed by a Georgia Power Truck.

[WanderingImport]

Originally Posted by counterclockwise

Another serious wreck today in Marlow at the same intersection. A pickup reportedly ran the same stop sign where the three fatalities occurred a week or so ago and got smashed by a Georgia Power Truck.

This is a case of driver fault.