A rush hour traffic accident on Ga. Highway 54 West just a few blocks from downtown Fayetteville on Sept. 20 had the road closed for nearly five hours and caused a massive traffic snarl. Interim Police Chief Jeff McMullan reviewed the factors involved in the traffic standstill and offered suggestions for the future.
The accident at the intersection of Hwy. 54 West and Brandywine Boulevard could not have come at a worst time, when a vehicle downed a power pole just before 4 p.m. The downed pole caused east and west lanes of the only east-west thoroughfare through the city to be blocked and closed.
McMullan noted several factors that played into the nearly five-hour traffic delay. One of those was the time of the accident, coming just as rush hour began with countless vehicles passing through the city.
McMullan said officers were stationed to the east and west of the accident area to help divert traffic, though the volume of traffic made that task difficult.
“It made matters worse that it happened during a time of high traffic volume,” McMullan said.
McMullan said the city is reviewing the idea of purchasing sign boards that could help with the re-routing efforts of officers on the scene.
Another factor was the power pole itself. It held lines from Georgia Power, Coweta-Fayette EMC, Comcast and ATT. Georgia Power and EMC crews had to wait on the ATT crew to arrive to repair the fiber optic line, McMullan said, explaining that a crew from one company cannot work on another company’s lines.
The city has an updated contact for the ATT which should expedite crew response if a similar accident were to occur again, McMullan said.
There is yet another variable that all motorists should consider. Those routinely traveling beween two points, such as home to work and back home, should be familiar with alternative routes, said department spokesman Mike Whitlow. Alternative routes may take additional drive time when traffic is flowing smoothly, but those same routes can save significant time during traffic back-ups to due accidents or weather events.
Such a weather event occurred in winter 2014 when two ice storms hit the area in a two-week period, causing thousands to be without power.
It was also during one of those storms that traffic on Hwy. 54, about a mile west of the Sept. 20 accident, came to a frigid standstill just east of South Sandy Creek Road when an unexpected icing left motorists stranded for an extended period.
