Paulding County neighbors say speeders make crosswalk near school too dangerous

DALLAS, Ga. — Neighbors are concerned about a stretch of State Route 61 that runs through their residential neighborhood.

A portion of State Road 61 is on Confederate Avenue in Dallas, Georgia.

Neighbors say they’ve noticed problems for years.

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“It was not designed for this kind of traffic and this is a residential section. All of our houses shake all the time,” neighbor Sarah Nix told Channel 2′s Michele Newell.

Another problem neighbors said they witness constantly is drivers who speed and ignore a crosswalk that is located near a middle school.

“It’s scary quite frankly because people don’t care they are just flying through here.

We’ve had multiple accidents right past the crosswalk,” said Ann, another neighbor.

“Super concerning, I would never let her walk by herself because I do not want her to be put at risk,” said Tori Barrett.

Barrett recorded herself walking in the marked crosswalk with her 13-year-old daughter as drivers failed to yield.

“We had already stepped into the crosswalk, three cars went by. They need to put lights or something to get people’s attention because people very clearly are not paying attention,” said Barrett.

The Georgia Department of Transportation said it will reach out to the city of Dallas to talk with them about the possibility of upgrading the crosswalk on Highway 61 to make it more visible to drivers.

According to GDOT, the crash volume on that stretch of Highway 61 is actually low with three crashes in 2023, four in 2022, and four in 2021.

Since 2014 the most crashes in a year was six in 2016.

Mayor James Kelly said he called his public works director and got GDOT involved after he saw Barrett’s video.

He said pedestrian lights will be installed soon and the crosswalk will be re-paved.

Dallas police said they enforce the area and have written citations.

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They said they are working with Georgia State Patrol to ramp up patrols in the area.

Dallas police said they’ve noticed more traffic in the area because the population is growing.

Regarding heavy trucks that use State Road 61, Mayor Kelly said the only way for trucks to get to where they need to go is on State Route 61.

He said a west bypass would have to be built around the city, something he said he has looked into doing previously.

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