County employee injured in accident
The superintendent of Barrow County's Department of Roads and Fleet was taken to the hospital today after being involved in a wreck.
Commission Chairman Danny Yearwood said at a county government meeting just before noon that Nat Dukes was at Barrow Regional Medical Center but did not appear to be seriously injured.
The accident happened at a well-known trouble spot at the intersection of Hwy. 211 and Barrow Park Drive.
Dukes was in his county truck and stopped in the northbound travel lane preparing to turn left, when his vehicle was struck from behind.
The driver of the oncoming vehicle was an older man who said he did not see Dukes' truck soon enough to be able to stop, Yearwood said.
The public, as well as members of the Barrow County Board of Commissioners, have complained for years about the lack of a left-turn lane at that intersection, which leads to the new Barrow County Criminal Justice Center.
Yearwood said the county's engineering manager told him that the county purchased two 48-inch warning signs to alert oncoming traffic and that those signs were sent to the Georgia Department of Transportation two or three weeks ago for state workers to install them adjacent to the state highway.
However, the GDOT employee responsible for installing the signs reportedly is on vacation, Yearwood said.
The commission chairman said as a result of Dukes' accident, he will ask the BOC to spend up to $200,000 from the county's reserves to move forward quickly with the left-turn lane improvement.
The accident happened at a well-known trouble spot at the intersection of Hwy. 211 and Barrow Park Drive.
Dukes was in his county truck and stopped in the northbound travel lane preparing to turn left, when his vehicle was struck from behind.
The driver of the oncoming vehicle was an older man who said he did not see Dukes' truck soon enough to be able to stop, Yearwood said.
The public, as well as members of the Barrow County Board of Commissioners, have complained for years about the lack of a left-turn lane at that intersection, which leads to the new Barrow County Criminal Justice Center.
Yearwood said the county's engineering manager told him that the county purchased two 48-inch warning signs to alert oncoming traffic and that those signs were sent to the Georgia Department of Transportation two or three weeks ago for state workers to install them adjacent to the state highway.
However, the GDOT employee responsible for installing the signs reportedly is on vacation, Yearwood said.
The commission chairman said as a result of Dukes' accident, he will ask the BOC to spend up to $200,000 from the county's reserves to move forward quickly with the left-turn lane improvement.
And BTW, the general public will be using this turning lane as well, so how is this "outragous spending"?
Why is it, the county wasn't held to the same standard as say a small business?