Sometimes the road is less-traveled for a reason

DOERUN — By some appearances, Thigpen Trail seems to be a sleepy little road.

Flanked for much of its route by farmland, pastures, houses and mobile homes, the name changes from Highway 202 shortly after entering Colquitt County from Thomas County, and it finally merges into Highway 112 in Worth County.

It’s a county-maintained road with gentle curves and hills, perfect for a Sunday drive checking out local scenery.

But at times, Thigpen Trail more resembles a race track. Drivers traveling between Atlanta and Tallahassee are routed down the road as it shows up on an online search for directions as the shortest route. For the handful of miles it shaves off distance, however, Thigpen Trail offers a challenge to a driver expecting a choice of places to eat, convenience stores and, well, necessary facilities.

Once part of a trail used to transfer military supplies during a war between the English and Spanish as the two empires wrestled for control of southwest Georgia, the trail was laid out by surveyor James Thigpen of the British Carolina colonies in the early 1700s and ended in St. Marks, Fla. Before that, the route was used by Native Americans.

With no restrooms or McDonald’s or even a place to grab a cold 16-ounce bottled water, travelers used to more populated areas may feel like they are back in that era as they traverse a stretch of some 50 or miles from Thomasville to Sylvester where there are no such facilities to be found.

In fact, local officials say that Hamilton Elementary School, which sits at the intersection of Thigpen and Highway 111, is besieged by antsy travelers looking for a restroom.

On Friday afternoons, the traffic cranks up in earnest, with many travelers doing well over the 55 miles per hour posted as the speed limit, said farmer Scotty Morris, who lives in a house next to the roadway. He has to be careful turning left into his driveway because. he said, as he slows down with his blinkers on, impatient drivers rush to pass before he starts making his turn.

At times people have stopped to relieve themselves on the side of the road across from the house, his wife, Soledad, said. And on one occasion, a drunk passenger got out and vomited in some bushes at the residence.

“People (don’t) like the cars coming through here,” Soledad Morris said. “They go really fast. When I moved here five years ago, it wasn’t like this. It was very rare you saw traffic.”

On one occasion, Morris said she drove a few miles to nearby Sale City to get some gas for a motorist from Florida who was panicked about running out before reaching a gas station. On another, some well-meaning travelers saw their dog across the road from the house and, thinking it was lost, were going to load the dog up to find it a home.

“To go get the mail, we have to watch close,” due to the speeding cars, she said of crossing the road to check the box.

One resident has erected a tongue-in-cheek solution: On the side of the road he has placed an old metal tobacco barn on which is painted “Yankee Rest Area.”

Mangled by Hurricane Michael, the building offers little in the way of amenities.

Another complaint from locals is that drivers stop — sometimes late at night — seeking directions, said Colquitt County Commissioner Paul Nagy. That’s because some of them lose cell service while on the road and have no idea which way to go, he said.

There is a sober side to the situation, however. Drivers unused to the area have been involved in at least two fatalities in recent years.

In October 2018, Noah Palmer, 10, was killed when he and his younger brother were struck by a car while crossing Thigpen Trail to get on the school bus for the short ride to Hamilton Elementary.

Police say that Monica Cutts, 26, of Tallahassee was texting while driving that morning. She was indicted by a Colquitt County Grand Jury in March on charges of homicide by vehicle, meeting or overtaking a school bus, serious injury by vehicle, driving while license suspended and two counts each of reckless driving and distracted driving.

And in November 2017, Atlanta resident Ashleigh Munro, 24, died in a car crash when the driver of a car she was in ran the stop sign into the path of a semi truck at the intersection of Highway 37.

There were 18 collisions at the Highway 37/Thigpen Trail junction, including the fatality, between January and February in 2018, Georgia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Juanita Birmingham said. The county has requested the agency study the intersection and a preliminary report lists making a roundabout as a potential solution.

In some of the crashes there are no skid marks, meaning the driver never hit the brakes, Colquitt County Sheriff Rod Howell said.

Some drivers who have failed to yield at the stop sign told police they thought it was a four-way stop or even that their phone didn’t alert them that there was a stop sign at that location.

Things have gotten better since the DOT did some work at the intersection, including putting signs warning of an approaching stop sign and double stop signs for the north-south Thigpen Trail lanes, he said.

Traffic heading east-west on state Highway 37 is not required to yield, though.

A private company’s study of the Hamilton Elementary school zone indicated an alarming number of speeders. The study recorded violations that occurred during the hour as students are arriving and the hour in the afternoon when they are departing, Howell said.

“We had 118 violations in 30 days,” he said. “We had some of them at 60-plus miles per hour. Quite a few were at 50-plus. The average was 45. It’s posted at 35. The principal at Hamilton said they’re all the time stopping there because they don’t know where the next restroom is.”

“People here have a great sense of humor,” Nagy said about the “rest area” in his District 5.

“They weather on.”

However, he and other county officials are working with state and federal officials to address road safety.

“On the serious side, to me ,it’s still an issue,” Nagy said. “We’re going to be working with DOT to make it safe.”

The county also has been in touch with a U.S. senator’s office to try to have companies change the route, but Nagy knows that’s a long shot at best.

So residents will have to deal with the traffic, but should not have to put up with abuse.

“If people pull over on the side of the road or are causing problems, call me or call the sheriff,” Nagy said. “We will get on it.”