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Putnam County Sheriff wants to make racetrack safer through road changes

Sheriff Howard Sills wants to speak to county commissioners about making changes to the road that leads to the racetrack.

Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills says he is trying to make changes to the road that leads to Headhunters Racetrack. That is the drag racing venue where a shooting left two people dead and four injured Saturday night.

Sills says they respond to a lot of calls there, and every time they have a difficult time getting emergency vehicles up and down the narrow road.

Whether it is working on car parts or catching a race at Headhunters Racetrack, Tevin Dunn says he spends a lot of time on Edward Reeves Road.

“You’re dealing with a lot of people,” says Dunn.

But he says he is not alone.

“Even all of that grass is all cars. Cars all the way down the road,” says Dunn.

Dunn says whenever there is a race there can be thousands of other people coming up and down the road. He says it is a factor that did not really concern him until Saturday night.

“Everything's so loud. Sometimes you don’t even realize a gun has been fired until somebody or you see people running,” says Dunn.

Because of his kids, Dunn says he left just before a fatal shooting took place, but he says it made him think about how quickly he could get out if there was gunfire going off next to him.

“I don’t know what else they could do? They had security there. They had a sheriff. Sometimes when things get out of hand, they just get out of hand,” says Dunn.

Sills says he agrees that you cannot prevent someone from acting out, but he says they can change how quickly they can respond.

“Well, it’s a 'one way in, one way out.' You saw the narrowness of the street. That’s the biggest problem,” says Sills.

Sills says it is not uncommon for his department to respond to a call at the racetrack, but he says between the size of the road and the number of people it makes it difficult to get emergency vehicles to the racetrack.

“We had to actually move people. We had to carry people and put them in the back of patrol cars,” says Sills.

He says he is planning to meet with commissioners to see what they can do about the road.

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