PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. — Putnam County leaders established a new task force, hoping to turn what federal highway officials call one of the most dangerous roads in America into a much safer route.
According to county officials, more than 90 vehicles were stopped by Florida Highway Patrol for speeding and other violations. Now, the newly established task force is sharing its plans with the public.
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Here’s a shocking fact about Putnam County roads:
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Putnam County had 21.14 fatalities caused by car crashes for every 10,000 people, placing it fifth among the most dangerous counties to drive in across America.
RELATED: Putnam County cracks down on deadly road with new task force
“That’s staggering to know that we are the fifth in the country. The whole United States for dangerous roads,” Leota Wilkinson, Chair of the Putnam County Commission, said.
In March, Action News Jax told you how two people died in a head-on collision on State Road 100. One was a mother who had her kids in the car with her.
On April 8, county leaders took matters into their own hands and finalized their 11-member task force.
RELATED: At least one person killed in three-vehicle crash in Putnam County
“And we will be having our first meeting on April 30,” Wilkinson said.
In that meeting, they’ll discuss findings from a 10-year traffic analysis of State Road 100, which stretches 18 miles across the county from Palatka to the Clay County line.
“And what we discovered is the area between Barton Road and Carraway is by far the most dangerous with having seven fatalities and over 61 accidents just on that 2-mile stretch of that out of the 18 miles,” Wilkinson said.
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Wilkinson is leading the task force. She shared some of their proposed solutions.
“We’ll be discussing the four-lane of course. It’s an FDOT road, so they would have to be willing to find that and do that. Also, you know, can we put barriers up? Is there any kind of lights that we could put up?” she said.
This newly formed initiative won’t just focus on one road.
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“The safety task force is a vision that would include all of the state roads in the county,” Wilkinson said.
The task force includes members with backgrounds in law enforcement and highway safety.
The first meeting will be held on April 30 at 2 p.m. at the county commission office. It will be open to the public.
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