Road Safety A Concern For Carroll

Highways like 775, are considered major fog areas in which sometimes heavily reduce a driver's vision. According to reports, the accident took place at a newly paved section of the road where no lines had been painted. Laurel Fork Supervisor Jody Early was deeply saddened about the loss of Brandon and wanted to do something to help prevent future vehicle accidents on the roads in Carroll County. Mr. Early stated, "This was such a tragic event. When it's foggy and there are no lines to go by, it's hard to know where things are at. I felt like I needed to do something about it and to hopefully prevent future accidents". At the Board of Supervisors meeting held on June 19th, Mr. Early introduced a resolution to the rest of the board members to improve road safety in the Carroll area.

According to a copy of the resolution provided by the County Administrator's Office, the resolution stated "the Carroll County Board of Supervisors appreciates the efforts of the Virginia Department of Transportation in maintaining the roads in Carroll County; the terrain and climate of Carroll County at times presents safety concerns to motorists with curvy, mountainous roads which are many times fog covered; portions of these roads receive new pavement with re-striping occurring at a later time; the Carroll County Board of Supervisors is concerned about the safety of motorists along these roads". The board placed a request to VDOT to place Carroll County a top priority for the striping of several highways that have received newly paved sections.

After reports from VDOT, the Hillsville area headquarters sent the request to VDOT's Salem district office to strip newly paved sections on the following highways in Carroll County: 775, 713, 749, 740, 743, 645, 638, 608, and 783. To have highways striped, according to Berlin Hill - Maintence Manager for VDOT's Hillsville Residency Headquarters, "In order for roads to be lined, they have to meet certain criteria. These roads have been approved because of fog area and traffic count". Unfortunately, the transportation district that Carroll is part of has only three to four trucks that specialize in striping highways. Even though the number is limited, VDOT reported that they will make an effort to paint lines on the proposed highways.