WAYNESBORO, Ga. () – Seven crashes, two serious injuries, and three deaths.

That’s what the Burke County Sheriff’s Office has seen happen at the intersection of Highway 25 and Coleman Young Road.

Now, they’re asking the Georgia Department of Transportation to study this area to prevent future accidents.

These numbers are part of data collected by the Sheriff’s Office over the last 5 years.

Officers say the crashes are due to limited visibility for drivers because of overgrowth and vegetation.

“I checked the measurement yesterday, and with the right-hand lane from the stop bar to the closest place you can see. The first vehicle coming was about 550 feet,” said Major Brandon Reeves.

This prompted Reeves to send a letter to the GDOT commissioner last week, requesting the agency to inspect the intersection. 

“Vehicle traveling 65 miles per hour, which is the posted speed limit, will be on top of you in just a flash,” Reeves said.

GDOT representatives say they are aware of the request, and will soon look at incident reports and crash data as part of a standard safety study. 

“From there, they’re going to see what they can do—determine if there’s any short term fixes that we can do ourselves for a relatively low amount, or if it might need a long-term solution like a project,” said Will Volk, communications specialist for District 2.

The Sheriff’s Office is looking for GDOT to cut vegetation back to improve visibility for drivers.

But Volk says before they do that, there’s a few hurdles they need to jump through first.

“If they find that there is a line of sight issue, that’s an option we can look at with trimming the vegetation back,” Volk said. “But, we’re also not sure if those trees fall within the state right of way, and if it’s on someone else’s land we can’t just go in there and cut their trees down. That could be another process as well.”

We did speak with the property owner who did not want to go on camera.

He says local officials have reached out to him to sign off on a waiver to work in the area, and he wants to help make the area safer any way he can.

The Sheriff’s Office says they have talked to the property owners as well, and want to come to the best solution to make the area safer for drivers.

“We’ve already been in talks with two of the property owners out there, and we’re getting some resolution out there. If we can clear those trees back like we’re thinking, that should greatly reduce the crashes that’s going on at that intersection,” said Reeves.

GDOT says they plan to review this area soon.

With other projects and intersections on the list, they’re hoping to have a plan for their course of action by the end of September.

“It’s a 27-county district, so our traffic operations staff is looking at several different intersections, but this one will definitely be added to the list,” said Volk. “They’re going to get the ball rolling soon, but I think we’ll have a good plan in place by the end of next month.”