A Georgia resident is speaking out about the habitual running of a local stop sign in hopes of catching the attention of law enforcement.
Joseph Dimino says that there is a major traffic concern in Macon, Georgia along Bethel Church Road in Macon, Georgia. According to Dimino, cars, school buses, and semi trucks run the stop sign at the Bethel Road intersection with Dixon Road daily, causing major safety concerns.
“It’s every day, it’s every day,” says Dimino. “The speed limit is 45. We’ll be passed, people riding our bumpers wanting us to go faster.”
“[We’ll] witness three school buses in a row run the four-way stop sign. I’ve called the school department, whoever is in charge of the school buses, and asked them if they can do something about it, and they say they are. But the school buses are still running 55 and 60 [miles] an hour down Bethel Church with children,” he continued.
Dimino also blames semi trucks for heightening the danger at the intersection, and questions whether trucks are even allowed on the roadway, although he has not looked into the legality of semi trucks using the roadway.
“The big trucks are running up and down this highway too fast and I think that’s a county road, it’s not a state road, and I don’t think that the big trucks and dump trucks are supposed to be on it,” he said.
Besides the danger to the school children and his neighbors, Dimino says that he and his wife have been in several near-wrecks at the intersection.
“My wife and I both have almost gotten hit at Bethel Church and at Holly Road on Bethel Church, for people running the stop signs,” he said to WGXA News. “There’s been two accidents up here. It’s a bad situation. People know that the police are not here so they’re just taking advantage,” he says.
“I’ve talked to the sheriff. We’d love to see more police presence out here, and a lot of my constituencies have voiced that same concern because I have personally seen them, I’m coming up to it and they come through it 25 or 30 miles an hour,” said District 6 Commissioner Raymond Wilder.
According to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, there have been two collisions on Dixon Rd. in 2022 so far, but none on Bethel Church Rd.