Selfless service. Giving back. Promoting peace. Fighting dread diseases. All of these are hallmark qualities of Rotary. In local communities all around the world, Rotarians are leaders who use their combined talents and influence to solve problems and improve the lives of their friends and neighbors. Rotarians are men and women who not only see unmet needs, but have the resources and will to satisfy them.

Such was the case in 1995 when the teenage daughter of a Thomasville Rotary Club member lost control of her car on a sharp curve on a county road outside of town. The young girl was lucky to have survived the wreck and fortunately there were no other cars or passengers involved. 

Even without the internet or email, news of the accident traveled quickly, and a few days afterward, the Rotarian father received a letter from a neighbor and friend. Enclosed with the letter was a copy of a 1974 front-page article and photo of a crash at that same sharp curve on the same county road. Details of the two accidents, 20 years apart, were eerily similar. A young inexperienced driver approaching the curve at too great a speed, losing control of the vehicle which flipped and crashed against a utility pole in the front yard of a house. Tragically, the 1974 accident claimed the life of the young teenage driver.

Confronted with this new information, the Rotarian father – who had just recently moved his family to Thomasville – decided to do some research. What he discovered shocked him. Friends who had grown up in Thomasville or who had lived there a long time knew about that deadly curve. And, when asked if they could think of specific places to drive in and around town that they considered dangerous, fellow members of the Rotary Club could name at least one and often several. One of the locations – another bad curve on the other side of town – had even earned the nickname, Archbold Curve, owing to the frequency of bad accidents from which drivers and passengers ended up in the hospital that bears that name.

The unmet need in this case became apparent pretty quickly: There are places in the community that are particularly hazardous to drivers… especially new, inexperienced drivers and newcomers to Thomasville who know nothing about those hazards. The solution also became apparent rather quickly, and it took the form of a driver safety awareness initiative called SafeDrive.

For more than 20 years, the Rotary Club of Thomasville has been producing and distributing Safe Drive Maps which show the exact locations where a majority of the most serious accidents occur. The SafeDrive Maps, now also in digital form, describe the hazard – including statistics on the number of accidents, number of injuries and fatalities – and offer safe-driving tips for each location. Maps are updated every three to four years based on new data from the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Thomasville Police Department.

The maps are available free of charge at all area auto insurance agencies, The Welcome Center, and the license examining office of the Georgia State Patrol. And, each year, Rotarian volunteers visit each of the area high schools to present SafeDrive to 9th grade students who have either just started driving or will have their licenses within the year. SafeDrive is just one of nearly 30 different community service projects sponsored by the Rotary Club of Thomasville, and in many ways, it typifies the spirit and heart of the Rotary organization and the men and women who comprise it.

For more information about SafeDrive or any of the Rotary community service projects, contact John Brown at thomasville@rotary6900.org.