GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Bobbie Goza, 84, of Stone Mountain, is dealing with significant health problems. The elderly widow has also been dealing with damage to her home because of what she calls a dangerous intersection she accuses Gwinnett County of not properly addressing.
Goza said of the Gwinnett County Department of Transportation, “I would like to say that they are responsible 100 percent and they haven’t done anything.”
The intersection in question is at Rockbridge Road SW and West Park Place Boulevard.
In the last few years, a driver wiped out her juniper tree and left the scene. Another driver crashed through her wrought iron gates, effectively destroying them. She said she was forced to pay $2,000 for her insurance deductible.
"I mean, I've got a mess. I mean, they're just botching up my house, if you want to know the truth,"
Goza said.
More recently, Marlon Patterson, 43, of Snellville, was arrested for drunken driving, reckless driving and failure to maintain a lane after his truck left the roadway just after 6 a.m. on March 25 on Rockbridge Road and plowed into Goza’s house. She said her son, Cary, was asleep in the room nearby and it’s fortunate no one was hurt. The Gwinnett County Police report shows Patterson's blood alcohol level was 0.159.
Goza said she saw police administer the field sobriety tests.
“They had him trying to walk the line out there and he couldn’t," she said.
Patterson told police he fell asleep at the wheel. He was later booked into the Gwinnett County Jail and released.
Goza showed Channel 2 investigative reporter Wendy Halloran her correspondence with GCDOT, which goes back at least one year. She pleaded with the transportation department to install a guardrail and better signage.
She asked if she could erect large boulders on her own property as a barrier and a makeshift fortress to combat the problem.
One such letter, dated June 5, 2017, from GCDOT traffic safety engineer Ash Khan, about Goza's request for a traffic study at the intersection, reveals that the department conducted a review of traffic conditions in the area. Its analysis took into account reported crash history and the existing signage and markings.
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