This SC city is planning major overhaul of its most dangerous road after death of a young mother
Brittany Lawson was jogging along one of Greenville’s main thoroughfares early one Saturday morning when she and her dog were hit by a drunk driver.
They both died at the scene.
Augusta Street — known locally as Augusta Road — had long been the site of accidents and traffic congestion due to narrow lanes, power poles too close to the roadway and people driving too fast for conditions.
Since Lawson’s death, the city of Greenville has completed the first phase of a major overhaul to the road, which carries up to 34,000 vehicles per day in some places.
The road runs past some of Greenville’s most expensive and sought-after neighborhoods as well as Greenville Country Club, Greenville High School and numerous shopping areas with boutiques, specialty shops and restaurants.
The road runs from close to Interstate 85 to South Main Street.
The city studied 46 corridors and determined that Augusta Street was the most dangerous, with 13 pedestrians and cyclists, including Lawson, hit during the last five years and 300 or so accidents each year.
“That further underscores the emphasis and the need for us to evaluate with the proverbial fine tooth comb all the ways that we can add safety enhancements on this much used corridor,” District 4 City Councilman Wil Brasington said in a video prepared by the city.
The first phase, which includes the area where Lawson was hit, involved what city engineers are calling a “road diet,” 1 mile of reduced roadway to create a turn lane. It was a $300,000 project.
Studies show traffic has slowed through the area.
The next phase is still in the planning stage. Proposed so far are replacing and widening sidewalks, improving traffic lights and lighting and putting power lines underground. The city also wants to improve some intersections and access to the road.
City spokeswoman Beth Brotherton said the cost of the project has not been determined. She said the city has worked to improve pedestrian safety on Augusta Street since the mid-1990s with master plans and small area plans.
“The death of Brittany Lawson put renewed focus on overall pedestrian safety in the city,” she said in a text message.
The city hopes to begin construction of the second phase nest summer.
Veronica Dawn Tharp, the woman who hit Brittany Lawson, pleaded guilty in 2022 to hit and run with death and reckless homicide and is serving a 25 year sentence at Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia.
Tharp crossed two lanes of roadway and went up onto the sidewalk beside Augusta Street, where Brittany Lawson and her goldendoodle Chloe were hit.
Brittany Lawson was a nurse “always ready to help,” her cousin Courtney Tollison said at Tharp’s sentencing. The fact Tharp left the scene of the accident without helping her is “almost too much to bear.”
Brittany Lawson graduated from Clemson University with a bachelor of science degree in nursing and worked for 14 years in the cardiac intensive care unit at Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital. Not long before she died, she joined Clemson/Prisma Health as a clinical nursing instructor.
This story was originally published October 4, 2023 at 6:00 AM.