SOUTH FULTON, Ga. — A community is raising the volume on their calls for change at the deadly intersection of Camp Creek Parkway and Butner Road.
It’s where an off-duty Atlanta police officer was killed last week.
Brent Gaston comes down Camp Creek Parkway day after day, behind the wheel of his tractor-trailer. “There’s plenty of nights I’ve come home and there’s a car that’s been hit and up into the woods right here,” Gaston says.
Last year, the Georgia Department of Transportation reported 53 crashes in or near Butner Road and Camp Creek Parkway. And just last week, an accident at the intersection took the life of off-duty Atlanta Police Officer Bennie Hardeman.
“My heart just dropped because again it’s another life lost at the intersection,” Councilwoman Carmalitha Gumbs says.
Gumbs says she’s been working to get GDOT to make changes to the intersection for years now.
Among the changes, she wants to see a turn lane added on Butner to Camp Creek, but she says the change is slow.
“We’ve had some conversations just this week that they are asking for some time. We are also trying to reduce the speed on major corridors such as Butner road,” Gumbs says, calling on others to get involved.
She hopes with more people asking for change, improvements will come before anyone else is killed.
“It takes more people to move and maneuver through government than just one person.”