State traffic engineers will review the circumstances surrounding three recent pedestrian deaths on Lexington Road to see if the five-lane roadway needs crosswalks or other safety improvements.
Athens-Clarke police say two of three pedestrians who were hit on the road in the past eight weeks had been drinking, but traffic investigators say they may never know exactly what happened in the latest fatality early Saturday morning.
...
"We collect fatality information on every state route and interstate and look for the cause of the accident and see if there's anything we can do to improve the roadway," said Teri Pope, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Transportation.
...Sober or not, people have no choice but to venture across the busy road, also known as U.S. Highway 78 and Georgia Highway 10, [Sgt. Don Eckert, a supervisor with the police traffic unit] said.
...traffic lights and pedestrian crossings are two miles apart, at Winterville Road in the west and at Cherokee and Gaines School roads in the east.
It's an area where Edward Pittman regularly hears the screeching of tires, oftentimes followed by crashes while working at his business, Pittman's Tire Service, at the corner of Lexington and Winterville roads.
"I hear it two or three times a week," he said, "This is a dangerous place."
In short, Lexington Rd "needs crosswalks or other safety improvements."
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