Pope Says DOT Willing to Look at Signal At Site of Sunday Wreck

Georgia Department of Transportation Spokesperson Teri Pope said that the agency would look at any official request received for a traffic signal at the intersection of the Toccoa By-pass and Memorial Drive.

Following Sunday’s accident, Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley said he was going to reach out to state officials regarding a signal there.

Pope said that the DOT will review any request for a signal on a state route submitted by a local government.

She said the DOT then does its own study that uses a number of nationally standardized objective criteria to determine whether a signal is warranted.

“We look at a variety of things for traffic signals,” said Pope. “It is not just traffic counts and it is not just accident history. Those are components of the overall view that we try to take.”

Factors include traffic volume at different times and over periods of time, pedestrian traffic, school crossings, railroad crossings, how traffic moves through a corridor, and more.

Also, the study looks at both current and historical information about the intersection.

Pope said that when looking at things like accidents, the DOT only looks at accidents that a light would have prevented.

“For instance, if a deer runs out in front of a vehicle and causes a crash, that crash is not considered as part of a traffic signal review because the crash could not be corrected if the traffic signal were there,” said Pope. “DUI’s, accidents caused by wildlife, rear end crashes are not considered when you are looking at an intersection for possible installation of a traffic signal.”

According to Pope, an intersection does not need to meet every minimum requirement for a signal.

Once an official request is received, Pope said the final determination is made by the DOT’s State Traffic Operations Division.