In Cobb County, authorities hope technology will help them make a deadly stretch of road a lot safer.

They’ve just installed a very unusual traffic signal along Six Flags Drive in Austell.

It’s called HAWK, short for “High Intensity Activated Crosswalk.” Traffic engineer Brook Martin says he hopes this $60 thousand signal will save lives.

“There have been four fatalities since 2005” along this stretch of road just north of I-20, Martin said.

One of the first to use the new self-activated crosswalk knew two of those victims.

“A guy got hit here one night and got hit so hard it knocked him out of his tennis shoes,” he said.

To stop traffic, all you have to do is push a button. That actuates a signal change to stop traffic.

http://youtu.be/uHihP2t5mdQ

It may take some getting used to – the signals are red and yellow. There’s no green light.

Even though the signal is now operating, there are still a lot of jaywalkers along this busy stretch of road and a lot of drivers who aren’t sure when to stop and when to go again. But Martin and other traffic engineers say drivers should catch on. They hope jaywalkers will too.