Deadly Johnston roads to get scrutiny tonight

Reeling from a string of car crashes that have claimed dozens of young lives, Johnston County and state officials will meet tonight to tackle what has long seemed an intractable problem on the county's roads.

Eighteen-year-old Shannon Nicole Adkins of Clayton, killed Saturday, was the 27th teen to die in a crash in Johnston since the beginning of 2006. The Clayton High School graduate researched teen traffic fatalities for her senior project.

This is not a new problem for county officials. Over the years, local and state agencies have stepped up education efforts and enforcement from time to time in hopes of stemming the tide.

But tonight's meeting marks the first time all of these groups will work together to view the problem from different perspectives and to consider potential solutions.

Commissioner Tony Braswell, who is leading the effort, plans to convene work groups in areas such as enforcement, education and road maintenance at the meeting.

"We've got to look at everything, whether it's roads, habits, education, enforcement," Braswell said. "We've got a problem, and I think we've got to bring all of these issues together."

Local officials at the forum will include the sheriff, district attorney and a representative from Johnston schools. Representatives from the state Department of Transportation and the Highway Patrol also will attend.

Ideally, Braswell would like to see state funding to improve the rural roads that have proved hazardous for young drivers. He also would like to see teens coaching one another on safe driving at school awareness clubs.

But effective solutions won't be easy to come by, said Robert Foss, director of the Center for the Study of Young Drivers at the N.C. Highway Safety Research Center.

Changing behavior through education is often ineffective, he said. And improving roads comes with a high price tag.

"Changing roads is massively costly," Foss said. "If it was cheap and easy to do, those roads would have long since been replaced."

Johnston County's growth has pushed more drivers onto winding, two-lane rural roads that weren't built for the level of traffic they now carry, Foss said. These roads, where most of the teen crashes occurred, often have narrow lanes, no shoulders and trees close by that errant drivers can hit, causing serious injuries.

With higher speed limits on these rural roads than in more populated areas, crashes more often lead to fatalities.

"Those are dangerous for everybody," Foss said. "They are much more dangerous for inexperienced drivers."

Roads specifically designed for heavier use have other safety enhancements, such as a slight tilt around curves to stop cars from skidding off.

Foss said the simplest measures might be the most effective in improving the safety of teens, such as urging teens to drive less, to take safer roads as much as possible and to wear seat belts.

Shannon Adkins' aunt, Karmela Adkins, said she isn't sure Shannon had planned to attend tonight's forum. And she doesn't think the discussion would have helped prevent the head-on collision that took her niece's life. A Clayton woman is charged with felony death by vehicle and is suspected of driving while intoxicated.

"I have to say that I don't think this is a teen driving problem," Adkins said. "Right now this looks to me like a drunk driving problem."