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Commissioner seeks change after fatal accident

NewsCentral Producer

One woman is dead and two more people are injured after a three car accident in Western Bibb County Thursday.

The Bibb County Sheriff's Office says 61-year-old Patsy Nicholas was pronounced dead at the Medical Center of Central Georgia around 8 p.m. Thursday, about an hour after the accident.

The Sheriff's Office says Nicholas' Toyota Camry was on Fulton Mill Road when it drove into westbound traffic, T-boning a Nissan Ultima, before the Camry was T-boned by a pickup truck hauling another car on a trailer.

Bibb County Commissioner Joe Allen happened upon the wreck as he was returning home from dinner with his wife.

"It's hurting me inside, I mean my heart hurts," Allen said.

The scene was especially gut wrenching for Allen. He was a personal acquaintance of the victim, and he says he's been trying to make the intersection safer for years.

"If you don't get something done, someone is going to die, I told (The Commission) at our last meeting, if you don't get something done, we're going to have someone lose their life," Allen said.

Allen says his push for traffic signals at the intersection hit a roadblock with the Georgia Department of Transportation. He says DOT engineers want to install a roundabout. He says that's absurd.

"I hold the state of Georgia and the DOT responsible for what happened last night ... I don't care if it costs 200 - thousand dollars of taxpayers money to save someone's life, how much is someone's life worth," Allen said.

Including Thursday's incident, 52 accidents have been recorded at the intersection of Fulton Mill Road and Eisenhower Parkway since 2010, 35 of them during daylight hours, 18 causing injury.

"My heart hurts for the family, I mean, my son called me awhile ago who was real good friends with Patsy, squalling, because if this, he said 'daddy you been trying, why can't you get something done,' and I ask the same question, why can't I get something done," Allen said.

Fifty-year-old Linda Jordan was transported to the hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. The driver of the pickup 39-year-old Christopher Carmichael was treated at the scene and released.
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