Athens officials order safety review after 3 deaths along county road

Athens-Clarke County officials have ordered a safety study along a heavily traveled road in north Athens following separate crashes that killed three people during the first two months of the year.

Traffic along Tallassee Road, which stretches from the GA-10 Perimeter to Georgia Highway 330 in Jackson County, has steadily increased as numerous residential subdivisions and a school have brought a population boom to the area, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.

As a result, speeding and illegal passing on Tallassee have become a critical concern, said Athens-Clarke County Commissioner Tim Denson, who represents the area along with Commissioner Jesse Houle.

Both officials called on the county’s traffic engineering office to conduct a full safety review of the road, which will include a study of the route’s crash history, the Banner-Herald reported.

Athens-Clarke police will also increase their presence, while a “Roadway Safety Audit Team” will conduct a more thorough examination, Denson said.

“That will be a more expansive study that will not only include them collecting data such as the crash reports and crash history but also doing site visits along the road … seeing how cars are reacting at different points in the road, car volume and all that kind of stuff,” Denson said, according to the Banner-Herald.