VALDOSTA — To quote author Douglas Adams, “People are a problem.”

An annual study has pointed out the most dangerous street intersections in Valdosta and Lowndes County, and law enforcement officials agree the biggest reason they are dangerous is that people don’t pay attention.

“They get distracted,” said Sgt. Bucky Griffin with the Valdosta Police Department. “They’re looking at their smartphone or looking at something by the side of the road.”

Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk agreed.

“I’ve been in a marked patrol car and pulled up beside someone who was so busy looking down at their phone they didn’t realize law enforcement had pulled up beside them,” he said.

The crash report, from the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization, looks at auto accident statistics from 2016-20.

In separate listings for high-crash locations in incorporated Valdosta and unincorporated Lowndes County plus Hahira and Lake Park, the name “North Valdosta Road” figured prominently.

Four of the 10 most crash-prone intersections in the county involved North Valdosta Road, as well as two of Valdosta’s top crash-site intersections.

In the county, the intersection with the most crashes from 2016-20 was North Valdosta Road at Val Del Road, the report states. That crossing of roads accounted for 98 wrecks, though none were fatal.

Paulk said one of the problems with that intersection is drivers getting off nearby Interstate 75, where the speed limit is 70 miles per hour, and not paying attention to how fast they are going once off the interstate; North Valdosta Road has a lower speed limit. Out-of-state drivers also don’t realize that traffic often backs up on North Valdosta Road during rush hours, the sheriff said.

“That’s why we get a lot of fender benders out there,” he said.

Similar problems plague the county’s No. 4 crash intersection, Lakes Boulevard at Mill Store Road in Lake Park, he said.

That intersection also sits near an I-75 overpass and suffers from high-volume usage, Paulk said.

“We get a lot of wrecks with people making left turns in front of others there,” he said.

In the city, the most wreck-prone intersection is North Valdosta Road at Country Club Drive.

That spot racked up 207 crashes fro 2016-20, though, again, no fatalities.

All of Valdosta’s high-wreck locations are high-volume areas, Griffin said.

“Morning, afternoon — all these places are really busy,” he said.

Smartphones are not the only distractions drivers face, the sergeant said.

“People are concentrating on where they are going or what they want to eat and not on the fact they’re driving a 6,000-pound bullet,” he said. “It’s human nature essentially to worry; you may be thinking about a big meeting at work rather than the road ahead of you.”

Paulk said coming to a complete stop and looking both ways is vital but sometimes not enough.

He said one major thorn in the sheriff’s office’s side is the intersection of Cat Creek Road and Ga. 122.

Though not listed on the VLMPO’s report, Cat Creek / Ga. 122 has seen its share of major accidents through the years

because of limited visibility in one direction, the sheriff said.

“If you’re driving north on Cat Creek when you come to the intersection, you can look left first, then right, see nothing, pull into the intersection and still get T-boned,” Paulk said. That’s because Ga. 122 to th

e driver’s left has a hill that cuts down the view, while to the right a driver can see clearly for a good distance.

Still, smartphones are a major problem, Griffin said.

“It seems like we can’t go five minutes without looking at a phone,” he said.

From 2016-20, there were 87 fatal wrecks with 91 deaths in the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization’s area, which includes not only Lowndes but small portions of Brooks, Lanier and Berrien counties.

Speed was implicated in eight of the fatal wrecks, and in 492 crashes in all, the report shows.

During 2019, there were not as many wrecks in the area, Griffin said, because there were fewer people on the road thanks to COVID-19 quarantines and shelter-in-place orders.

Since COVID-19 restrictions were eased, the traffic accident situation has worsened, the sergeant said.

Both Paulk and Griffin emphasize the need for drivers to concentrate on safety.

“Wear seat belts, slow down, put the cellphone down and concentrate on driving,” Griffin said.