Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

Georgia drivers need to be particularly careful to avoid car accidents as we come up on this Memorial Day weekend. We tend to think of New Year's Eve as being particularly dangerous for drivers, and it is. But a lesser-known fact is that people are killed in car crashes in Georgia on all of the holiday weekends, including Memorial Day.

I am a Georgia lawyer who handles wrongful death car accident lawsuit cases, so I see too many terribly sad situations where people are seriously injured or die in a holiday crash I am urging all of my readers not to make the mistake of thinking that Memorial Day driving is somehow safer than other holiday weekends! The fact is that in 2009, 17 people died on Georgia roads over the course of the Memorial Day weekend. You need to be very cautious when you drive this Memorial Day weekend.

I searched the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) database to learn more about what happened in those 2009 Memorial Day weekend car crashes. The FARS database is maintained by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration. NHTSA compiles data about fatal accidents from all over the 50 states and the U.S. territories, and publishes the data in FARS. The database only looks at accidents where at least one person died; accidents that caused severe personal injury, even accidents where someone incurred a head injury or was paralyzed, are not included in the database unless someone also died in the accident. The latest data available in FARS is from 2009.

The first auto accident in which someone was killed over Memorial Day weekend 2009 occurred on May 22, 2009, in DeKalb County.

Four people died on May 23, 2009, on Georgia's roads and streets. The first of the four Georgia car accident victims was killed in a wreck in Garden City in Chatham County. Another person died in a car wreck in Madison County, Georgia. A third person was killed in a car crash in Whitfield County, also in Georgia. And the fourth person killed on that day died as a result of a car accident that occurred in Putnam County.

Chatham County saw yet another Memorial Day car accident death the next day, giving Chatham County the undesirable distinction of tying with Fulton County for the most deadly car accidents over the holiday weekend.

That same day, on May 24, 2009, a car accident claimed a life in Long County, Georgia, and another auto wreck killed a person in Fannin County.

Additionally, one person was killed in an auto crash in Newton County, Georgia.

A fourth person died in a Memorial Day car crash on May 24, 2009, this time in Stewart County. And a sixth person died that same day in Fulton County.

The deaths slowed only slightly on May 25, 2009. Four people were killed that day. One person died in a HInesville car accident in Liberty County, Georgia. Another person was killed in a Walker County car accident.

The deadliest accident of the 2009 Memorial Day weekend was in Cherokee County. Two people were killed in a single car wreck in that county.

Fulton County and Tift County both also had fatal car accidents on May 25, 2009.

The final day counted as part of the Memorial Day weekend, May 26, 2009, was also deadly. Two people died that day, one in Tift County and one in Warren County.

In a recent study done for the Georgia Department of Transportation, which looked at incidents that occurred at 13 different exits along I-85, Jimmy Carter Boulevard had - by far -- the largest number of incidents. As a car accident attorney, I have seen that a large number of car wrecks occur at that exit. Still, I was surprised at the extent to which the intersection has become a problem. The study looked at car accidents, stalled cars, and other traffic-snarling events. A whopping 21% of the incidents occurred at that one intersection. Clearly the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) needs to take a look at the Jimmy Carter intersection and see whether improvements can be made to make the intersection safer and less congested for drivers.

The Study

In 2011, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) converted a 16-mile stretch of HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lane along I-85 into a HOT (high-occupancy toll) lane. The stretch of roadway runs through DeKalb County, beginning at Chamblee-Tucker Blvd., and into Gwinnett County. The lane ends just before the I-985 spur, at the Old Peachtree Road exit.

GDOT commissioned an engineering firm to look at what affect the HOT lane was having. The study looked at 2570 incidents - ranging from car crashes to stalled vehicles - that occurred at 13 different exits along I-85. The study took into account incidents of all types - car accidents, of course, but also other situations that could affect the flow of traffic: vehicles that stalled on the road or the roadside; roadkill on the highway; debris in the road; construction; and road closures. One percent of the incidents fit none of those categories and were labeled "Other." A majority - 60% - of the incidents that the company looked at were stalls along the roadway.

The government did not have any database that readily contained the information the engineering firm needed. The company ultimately used data mining to generate information about the year 2010 from the GDOT Navigator database.

What the Study Found

By far the largest number of incidents - auto wrecks, stalls, etc. -- occurred at Jimmy Carter Boulevard. A whopping 552 of 2570 incidents -- 21% -- occurred at the I-85/Jimmy Carter exit.

The next closest exits, in terms of the number of events, were the Pleasantdale Road exit and the interchange where I-85 crosses I-285. Each of those exits saw 325 incidents, or 13% of the total.

Eleven percent of the incidents occurred at Indian Trail - Lilburn Rd. Eight percent occurred where I-85 meets Beaver Ruin Rd., 7% occurred at Chamblee-Tucker Road, and another 7% of the incidents happened at Pleasant Hill Rd. Three exits each were responsible for 5% of the total number of incidents: Steve Reynolds Blvd., SR 316 and Old Peachtree Rd. The Sugarloaf Parkway exit accounted for 3% of the incidents. The exit at Duluth Highway / DR 120 accounted for just 1% of the incidents, as did the I-85 exist at Northcrest Rd.

Why did Jimmy Carter Boulevard have so many incidents?

Certainly the exit at Jimmy Carter Boulevard sees a tremendous amount of traffic each day, and more traffic can generate more incidents. Still, the contrast between Jimmy Carter and the other exits is so stark that it is clear that something needs to be done to fix the problems at the Jimmy Carter exit. Being an attorney and not a highway and traffic safety engineer, I'm not the person who can figure out exactly what ought to be done. But I do know that the experts at GDOT need to be taking a hard look at what can be done to improve that exit for drivers.

If you have been following my blog, you know that I am a lawyer who represents people injured in car wrecks, and I like to keep up with the information about the crashes that occur in and around Georgia. I recently read an interesting GDOT study that looked at the incidents and car accidents along I-85 in DeKalb and Gwinnett Counties. This study was especially important because it looked at some exits where traffic and auto accidents have been so bad that the Georgia Department of Transportation ("GDOT") has installed HOV lanes.

The study was done because GDOT converted a stretch of HOV lane into a pay lane, or "HOT" lane, in October 2011. (HOT stands for "High Occupancy Toll.") GDOT hired Jacobs Engineering Group to determine how GDOT could go about studying the effect that the conversion was having on congestion, auto wrecks and other incidents.

On February 26, 2012, Jacobs Engineering reported back to GDOT about how a comparison might be done. In the course of the study, the firm looked at incidents that occurred in 2010, and it found some interesting facts.

(1) The engineering firm looked at a total of 2944 incidents. It was not just looking at motor vehicle accidents - it was looking for any incident on that stretch of highway, which could include debris in the road, a stalled vehicle on the side of the road, etc. In fact, only 18% of the incidents along that stretch of I-85 were car accidents. Construction caused 13% of the incidents. Debris caused 7% and roadkill caused less than 1%. Another 1% of the time roads were closed due to "other", and in less than 1% the incident was due to "other closure." A whopping 60% of the incidents related to stalled cars.

(2) First, a full 1/3 of the accidents (33%) occurred during the weekday peak hours - even though the peak hours make up only 7% of the hours that occur in a week. The reason is obvious to anyone who has driven in Atlanta traffic during rush hour.

(3) While 48% of the incidents did block at least one lane along I-85, the majority of incidents did not block any lanes at all. Of course, a car wreck would nearly always block at least one lane of traffic, at least until the drivers could get their vehicles to the side of the road.

(4) An extremely small 2% of the incidents blocked an HOV lane. In all, 973 incidents occurred during the peak rush hours. 485 of these incidents blocked an HOV lane. Only 21 of the 973 incidents blocked the HOV lane.

(5) Once a lane got blocked, the wait time to get the lane cleared was substantial. The study eliminated blockages caused by construction, and even so found that on average a lane remained blocked for 27 minutes. The HOV lane may have been blocked less often, but when it was blocked it did not fair much better than the other lanes, since it took on average 25 minutes to clear the block.

(6) When 1 lane was stopped, generally more than one lane was stopped. On average, 1.4 lanes wound up being stopped per incident.

(7) More incidents occurred in the summer (29%) and fall (28%) than in the winter (23%) and spring (20%). (As an aside, I could not figure out why the incidents split this way. I can figure that more people who are unfamiliar with our roadways might be headed down I-85 for summer vacations, but that would not explain why fall saw so many more incidents than spring did.)

(8) The car accident and other non-crash incidents spread across the days of the week in just the way you might imagine. Most incidents clustered on the weekdays, and a smaller percentage happened on weekend days. Monday had 16% of the incidents and Tuesday had 17%. The incidents peaked on Wednesday, which had 19%. 18% of the incidents occurred on Thursday and a relatively smaller 15% happened on Friday. The rate dropped by about half on the weekends: only 8% of the incidents occurred on a Saturday and 7% on a Sunday.

This past Wednesday, May 1, 2013, a grand jury indicted Michael Owen Snider, a Stone Mountain man who caused 15 different hit-and-run accidents back on January 23, 2012. Snider's son has made some strong accusations about the Stone Mountain bar where Snider was drinking right before the disastrous series of wrecks also should be following the case. I am a car accident lawyer who handles cases in which DUI drivers cause injuries to other drivers and passengers, and today I am going to talk about the George law on liability of bars that serve too much alcohol.

The Gwinnett Daily Post is reporting that Snider's son told police that his father had been returning home from a bar in DeKalb County. According to the son, the bar had sold too much alcohol to his dad on numerous occasions. The son had complained, but the bar had ignored the son's attempts to get the bar to stop over-serving his father.

The situation brings up an important question under Georgia law. Could a bar be potentially liable for furnishing too much alcohol? The answer is yes, under O.C.G.A. § 51-1-40. The statute applies to any store or person that sells or serves alcohol -- for example, package stores, liquor stores, grocery stores, restaurants and bars. The statute is called a "dram shop law", "dram shop" being the old-fashioned term for a store that sells or serves alcohol.

The General Rule

O.C.G.A. § 51-1-40 says that, in general, the bar or restaurant that served or sold the alcohol is not liable for the injuries that an intoxicated person causes; the drunk person is liable for his own actions. Under the statute, a person "who sells, furnishes, or serves alcoholic beverages to a person of lawful drinking age shall not thereby become liable for injury, death, or damage caused by or resulting from the intoxication of such person, including injury or death to other persons." The "proximate cause" of the injuries is the fact that the intoxicated person drank the alcohol, not that someone provided the alcohol to the person who then injured or killed a third party.

The Exceptions

However, the statute makes two important exceptions, in the case of any person, store, restaurant or bar that:

(1) "willfully, knowingly, and unlawfully sells, furnishes, or serves alcoholic beverages to a person who is not of lawful drinking age, knowing that such person will soon be driving a motor vehicle"; or,

(2) "knowingly sells, furnishes, or serves alcoholic beverages to a person who is in a state of noticeable intoxication, knowing that such person will soon be driving a motor vehicle."

If either of these two exceptions applies, then the person, or bar or restaurant that provided the alcohol "may become liable for injury or damage caused by or resulting from the intoxication of such minor or person" if the "sale, furnishing, or serving is the proximate cause of such injury or damage."

In other words, if a restaurant serves alcohol to someone who is noticeably drunk, knowing that the person will soon be driving a car, then the restaurant can be liable to anyone who gets hurt as a result of the drunk driver. Likewise, if a package store, a grocery store, a bar or an individual "willfully, knowingly, and unlawfully" serves or sells alcohol to someone who is under the age of 21, knowing that the person will soon be driving, the bar or individual may be liable for what happens when the young person drives under the influence.

The son's statements to the police raise very serious questions about what the Stone Mountain, DeKalb County, bar knew when it served Snider so much alcohol that he became drunk right before he drove home.

Snider caused five auto accidents in DeKalb County before he crossed over into Gwinnett County. In Gwinnett, he caused ten more car crashes at the intersections of Highway 78 and Bethany Church Rd., Hewatt Rd., Ross Rd., Paxton Lane, Killian Hill Rd., East Park Place, and Parkwood Rd. At three intersections -- Ross Rd., Killian Hill Rd. and East Park Place -- Snider somehow managed to cause two different accidents in each intersection. Snider stopped only when he crashed into a John Boy's restaurant. Numerous drivers and passengers were hurt in the auto collisions, and two people were killed.

The grand jury returned indictments against Snider for, among other things, two counts of homicide by vehicle and one count of felony murder.

I've written in some of my earlier blog posts that my oldest child will be a teen driver within the next year or two. The idea terrifies me! So although I write this blog as an auto accident lawyer, I have a special and very personal reason to research the rules and regulations that apply to teen drivers here in Georgia.

Speaking as a parent, I am happy to report that Georgia has a special rule about texting and cell phone use for teenage drivers. Under a law that took effect on July 1, 2010, drivers under the age of 18 are not allowed to "[e]ngage in a wireless communication." O.C.G.A. § 40-6-241.1. The law does have several exceptions, mostly for emergency situations.

What are Georgia's teenage drivers not allowed to do?

For those teenagers who are future lawyers and think maybe they have some room to negotiate about what exactly "engage in" means, or just what counts as "a wireless communication," the statute defines the phrase to mean "talking, writing, sending, or reading a text-based communication, or listening on a wireless telecommunications device."

What devices are included in the ban for teenagers driving in Georgia?

The statute defines "wireless communication device" to include a cell phone, anything that sends text messages, a PDA, a "stand alone computer," or anything "substantially similar."

I wasn't quite sure whether to laugh or cry at the image of a teenager cruising down the road emailing people on a laptop. Seriously? Is that even possible?

What devices can a teenager still use?

The statute says that several devices will not count as "wireless communication": CB radios, ham radio, walkie-talkies, in-vehicle security, navigation devices, etc.

Again, am I amused or horrified by the image of a teen driver humming along with his left hand on the wheel, and his right hand tapping out Morse code on his ham radio? Does that really happen? Most of the teenagers I know would be humiliated at the thought of having a ham radio in their cars when all of their classmates have cell phones.

Are there exceptions to Georgia's rule about teenage drivers and texting and cell phone use?

Yes, the statute does make several exceptions. A teenaged motor vehicle operator is allowed to report "a traffic accident, medical emergency, or serious road hazard." He also can report any "situation in which the person believes his or her personal safety is in jeopardy." The statute makes a third "emergency" exception for teen drivers who are tying to "report or avert the perpetration or potential perpetration of a criminal act against the driver or another person."

In addition to the exceptions for emergencies, the statute makes a practical exception for a teenage driver who is sitting in a car that "is lawfully parked." The exception makes sense, of course, because a parked car does not pose a threat to anyone. The exception also is important because one of the goals behind the law is to encourage teenagers to pull over to the side of the road and park before they text or call. If the statute did not have this exception, the law would discourage exactly the sort of responsible behavior that it was intended to prompt.

Because the code has exceptions for emergencies, I have to say that I do not understand the exceptions that the legislature made for CBs, ham radios, and walkie-talkies. It would seem to me that any of those devices could be every bit as distracting as a cell phone or iPad.

I handle Atlanta car wreck lawsuits, and I have been blogging about the statistics on car wrecks here in our city. I am using data from the FARS ("Fatality Analysis Reporting System") system, as reported on City-Data.com, to see whether we can identify some trends and weaknesses in the road system here in Atlanta.

From the 2009 data, we can see that some roads were particularly dangerous for Atlanta drivers.

Some of the findings were pretty obvious. You would expect a number of deadly crashes on the heavily-traveled, multi-lane highways around Atlanta, and the data confirms the problem. Deadly car crashes occurred on all of the major highways around Atlanta. Two people died on the multi-lane road SR-400. Two more were killed along I-285 / SR-407, which runs around the city. I-75, another enormous, multi-lane road that crosses the city from southeast to northwest, saw five car wrecks that caused deaths. Four more deaths from car accidents occurred along I-85, which runs in the opposite direction from I-75, heading from southwest to northeast.

I-75, I-285, I-85 and I-20 are all limited access mega-lane interstates that course through Atlanta, but a number of other major roads were exceptionally dangerous, too. Several other roads that do not have the completely limited access that the interstates do nonetheless saw a disproportionate number of deadly automobile accidents.

Three people died in car crashes on Moreland Ave. / SR-42. Two were killed in automobile wrecks along Cleveland Avenue. Two people were killed in fatal car accidents on Boulevard. Two people died on Metropolitan Pkwy / SR-3 in Atlanta due to auto crashes. Two people died on SR-400 for the same reason. Ponce De Leon / SR-8 / SR-78 /SR-29, SR-278 had three different car crashes that left people dead. Two people were killed in fatal car accidents along Memorial Dr. / SR-154 in Atlanta. Another two people died in car accidents that occurred along SR-3 / Northside Dr. / Northside Pkwy in Atlanta.

Deadly car accidents also occurred on Abner Place, Andrews Dr., Barge Rd., Boulevard Granada, Briarcliff Rd., Browns Mill Rd., Campbellton Rd., Cassanova St., Claire Dr., D.L. Hollowell Pkwy., Green St., Highland Ave., Hobart Dr., I-20, Lawton St., Lee St., Lenox Road, Mary George Ave., McDaniel St., Metropolitan Pkwy., Monroe Dr., Moreland Ave., Nacoochee Dr., N. Eugenia Place, Northside Dr., Paces Ferry Rd., Parker Avenue, Peachtree St., Pryor Cir., S. Central Avenue, Sanders Ave., S Freedom Pkwy / SR-10, Roswell Rd. / SR-9 / SR-19, SR-403, St. Charles Pl., St. Johns Ave., Sylvan Rd., Vanderbilt Ct., Whitewall St., and York Ave.

Almost all of the roads where people died were multi-lane roads on with higher speed limits. As you would expect, virtually none of the car wreck deaths occurred on the quieter, residential roads. People may suffer serious personal injuries in car accidents on those residential streets, but in general the accidents along those roads tend to be lower-impact and at slower speeds, and so fewer of the crashes in these areas cause car accident deaths.

In 2009, thirteen pedestrians were killed by cars here in Atlanta. Astonishingly, 30% -- four - of those pedestrians were killed on just two streets: Boulevard and Cleveland Ave. In 2009, two pedestrians were killed on each of those two streets.

I am a lawyer who represents family members of people killed in Atlanta in pedestrian accidents, and in a recent post I talked about Boulevard. Today I want to talk about the other most dangerous street for pedestrians in 2009: Cleveland Avenue.

The two deadly pedestrian accidents happened within a mile of one another on Cleveland Avenue. Cleveland runs east to west. On the western side, the street is first called Cleveland Avenue at the point where it intersects with Harris St. To the west of Harris St., the road is called Irene Kidd Parkway. On its eastern side, the road terminates at the Fulton County Board of Education building. Cleveland Ave. is approximately three miles long.

The first deadly pedestrian-car collision on Cleveland Ave. happened on April 24, where Metropolitan Pkwy. intersects with Cleveland Avenue. The car accident happened at 5:41 p.m. Atlanta police reported that the driver of the car that struck the pedestrian was driving under the influence / DUI, and that drinking alcohol and then driving had played a role in causing the accident. This particular pedestrian fatality wreck happened just a block east of the Cleveland Ave. interchange with I-85, near the Emma Hutchinson Elementary School. The accident happened on a corner that has a number of Atlanta MARTA bus stops. Several businesses sit at the intersection, including a Walgreens, a Radio Shack, a CVS Pharmacy, a Burger King and a Family Dollar store. At this intersection, both Cleveland and Metropolitan are four lanes wide, and both roads have an additional turn lane on each side of the intersection.

The second Atlanta pedestrian who was killed on Cleveland Ave in 2009 was killed on September 10th at 9:40 p.m. in the evening. The accident happened where Cleveland Ave. crosses Browns Mill Rd. The accident occurred in Atlanta to the east of I-75, in Rosedale Heights here in Atlanta, less than a mile from where the first accident had occurred. This accident happened to the east of Cleveland Elementary School and Cleveland Ave. Park, and to the west of the Rosel Fann Recreation Center. This intersection is more residential than the Metropolitan/Cleveland intersection where the other 2009 pedestrian accident occurred. The eastern-most two corners are residential. One of the other two corners has a Texaco. The fourth corner has parking for the Maranatha Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which sits to the west on Cleveland Ave. This intersection is much smaller than the one where Cleveland intersects with Metropolitan Pkwy. On the west side of the intersection with Browns Mill Rd. - the residential side, Cleveland Ave. has just two lanes, with no turn lane. One its western side, Cleveland Ave. has two lanes plus a turn lane. For its part, Browns Mill Rd. has two lanes and a turn lane on both the northern and southern sides of this Atlanta intersection. Atlanta MARTA buses also run through this intersection.

Although the two intersections are both in Atlanta, both on the same road, and are very near one another, they seem quite different. One intersection is much larger and more heavily trafficked and has numerous businesses; the Cleveland / Browns Mill junction is quieter, half residential, and has less traffic and fewer businesses and fewer business that would generate a significant amount of auto traffic. Both, however, were equally deadly for pedestrians in 2009.

Both of these cases where a car hit and killed a pedestrian are recorded in the FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System) database that is maintained by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

In 2009, thirteen pedestrians were killed on Atlanta's streets. Four of those thirteen car wrecks happened on just two of Atlanta streets: Boulevard and Cleveland Ave.

As a pedestrian accident lawyer, I have been looking at how we can use the data about fatal pedestrian crashes to pinpoint particularly dangerous areas in Atlanta for pedestrians. I represent the families of Atlanta pedestrians who have been killed in these wrecks, and the pain for these families is immense. Could we make Atlanta safer for pedestrians?

When I searched the FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System_ data published by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), I was struck by the fact that two roads took a very dominant position in the statistics. Of the 13 pedestrians who were hit and killed by cars in 2009, two were killed on Boulevard and two on Cleveland Ave.

When you think about it, the chances that two streets would stand out like that are very, very small. I was not able to find a figure for the number of streets there are within the city limits of Atlanta, but it would have to be in the hundreds, perhaps even the thousands. Despite those large numbers, 31% of all Atlanta pedestrian who were killed in car accidents in 2009 died in car accidents that occurred on just two roads.

Today I want to take a look at the two accidents that happened on Boulevard. Boulevard stretches north to south. Its northernmost point intersects with Ponce De Leon Ave. / SR-78 / SR - 278 at the southernmost part of Midtown. To the south of Ponce De Leon Ave., the road is called Boulevard. To the north of Ponce De Leon Ave., the road changes names, and is called Monroe Dr. To the south, Boulevard ends at McDonough Blvd. at the United States federal penitentiary. Boulevard is roughly five miles long.

The two crashes in which a pedestrian was killed happened on opposite ends of Boulevard.

On the northern end of Boulevard, a pedestrian walking along Boulevard was struck and killed by a car at 1:25 a.m. in the morning on March 21, 2009. The Atlanta pedestrian had been walking between Wabash Ave. NE and Ralph McGill Blvd. The driver had one passenger in his car, and neither the driver nor the passenger was killed in the auto collision.

A car killed another pedestrian toward the southern-most part of Boulevard here in Atlanta. The wreck happened at the intersection at Boulevard and Cassanova, two blocks up from Boulevard's terminus at McDonough Blvd. The pedestrian accident happened just before midnight at at 11:54 p.m., on September 6, 2009. The driver of the car had one passenger, and both the driver and the passenger survived the crash.

The Atlanta police did not cite either driver with driving under the influence / DUI, and the FARS database does not cite drinking and driving as playing a role in causing either accident.

More than 15% of all pedestrians who were killed on Atlanta's streets in 2009 died on this one, five-mile stretch of roadway. That number is truly astonishing when you put it into the context of the vast numbers of roads and streets we have in Atlanta.

It may not surprise you to learn that more Atlanta pedestrians are killed after dark than during the daylight hours.

In my Atlanta pedestrian lawyer blog, I have been looking at the statistics about the car wrecks we have around our city. Recently I have been looking at the facts about pedestrians who are run over by cars. Today I am going to discuss data from the National Highway and Traffic Administration's FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System) database, and focus on the time of day of the accidents that killed Atlanta pedestrians in 2009.

Pedestrians Killed in Daylight

Four Atlanta pedestrians were killed during daylight hours. The first pedestrian killed in the early afternoon at 1:38 p.m. at the intersection SR-237 and Lenox Rd. The accident took place on January 30, 2009.

The next afternoon accident happened at 5:41 p.m. on April 24, 2009, when a pedestrian was killed in a car accident at Metropolitan Pkwy. and Cleveland Ave.

While 6:33 p.m. is technically an evening hour, on August 15, 2009, it still would have been light out when a pedestrian died when a car hit him as he walked along I-75 in the Atlanta city limits.

On September 15, 2009, a pedestrian was struck and killed in mid-afternoon, at 2:46 p.m. The car-pedestrian accident happened at the intersection of Hobart Dr. and Vanderbilt Ct.

Pedestrians Killed at Night

By contrast, 9 of 13 of the Atlanta pedestrian deaths happened when a car struck and killed a pedestrian after dark, in the nighttime hours.

A March 4, 2009, car accident that claimed the life of a pedestrian happened at 9:26 p.m. at the intersection of Moreland Ave. / SR-42 and Sanders Ave. here in Atlanta.

Another March pedestrian accident, this one on March 16, 2009, happened in the evening at 9:23 p.m. along a stretch of I-85 running through Atlanta.

A third pedestrian was struck and killed in the early morning hours of March 21, 2009. The accident occurred at 1:25 a.m., as the Atlanta pedestrian walked along Boulevard.

The next Atlanta pedestrian wreck happened on March 27, 2009, again in the early evening. That accident took place at 8:26 p.m. at the intersection of Lee St. and York Ave.

The final pedestrian-car collision of March was also in the evening hours. A car hit a pedestrian walking along SR-400 in Atlanta at 10:30 p.m. on March 27, 2009.

Another pedestrian died as a result of a nighttime car wreck on July 18, 2009. The car accident happened at 10:49 p.m. on D.L. Hollowell Pkwy. (Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway).

On September 6, 2009, a car hit and killed a pedestrian shortly before midnight, at 11:54 p.m., at the corner of Atlanta's Boulevard and Cassanova St.

At the intersection of Cleveland Ave. and Browns Mill Rd., a pedestrian died after being run over by a car in the evening hours, at 9:40 p.m. The accident happened on September 10, 2009.

Fortunately, no pedestrians were killed in Atlanta in October, November or December 2009. However, one final pedestrian was killed in the month of September, on the 29th.
The accident happened on Campbellton Rd. at 6:20 a.m. Since sunrise did not occur until 7:31 a.m., this wreck would have taken place before daylight arrived for the day.

In 2009, Atlanta had 45 fatal car accidents, and a surprising number of those accidents involved Atlanta pedestrians. Thirteen of the 45 accidents involved a pedestrian who was struck and killed by a car. Of the 47 people who lost their lives in the 45 car wrecks that occurred in 2008, 13 of them were pedestrians.

As a lawyer who represents Atlanta car accident victims, I meet with many devastated families and seriously injured people. My goal is to look at the data about how and when Atlanta's car accidents are occurring, in hopes we can draw some conclusions about how to minimize the number of people who are killed or seriously injured on Atlanta's roads each year. I am currently looking at Atlanta pedestrian deaths.

On January 30, 2009, a car struck and killed a pedestrian at the intersection of SR-237 and Lenox Road 1/30/09.

In March of that year, a truly shocking five different car accidents killed pedestrians here in Atlanta. On March 4, 2009, a pedestrian was struck and killed at the juncture of Moreland Ave. / SR-42 and Sanders Avenue.

On March 16, 2009, a person walking along I-85 here in Atlanta was killed by a car driving on the interstate.

On March 21, 2009, a pedestrian died after being hit by a car on Boulevard here in Atlanta.

That same month, a pedestrian died when a car hit him at the intersection of
Lee Street and York Avenue on March 27, 2009.

The day was truly horrific for pedestrians, as well as for Atlanta police and emergency personnel. That same day, on March 27, 2009, a person walking along SR-400 was hit by a car and killed.

In April of 2009, on the 24th of the month, a car hit and killed a pedestrian at the intersection of Metropolitan Pkwy. and Cleveland Ave here in Atlanta.

In July of that year, in 2009, a pedestrian died after being hit by a car while he was walking on D.L. Hollowell Pkwy. (Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy.).

In August, another pedestrian lost his life, this time while walking along I-75. That accident took place on August 15, 2009, in the Atlanta city limits.

The next month, on September 6, 2009, a pedestrian was struck and killed at the intersection of Boulevard and Cassanova St.

The month of September was the second deadliest of the year for Atlanta pedestrians. Three pedestrians were struck and killed that month. The first death occurred on September 10, 2009, at the intersection of Cleveland Ave. and Browns Mill Rd. The second death of the month occurred on September 15, 2009, when a pedestrian died after being hit by a car at the intersection of Hobart Dr. and Vanderbilt Ct. The final Atlanta pedestrian death of the month and the year happened on September 29, 2009 on Campbellton Rd.

I pull these statistics from a database kept by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA). The database, called FARS, includes data about every fatal car crash in the United States. The database does not include information about car crashes that do not include a death, regardless of how serious the personal injuries incurred in the wreck were. Thus, while FARS contains very useful information, it omits a number of very serious injury car wrecks, even ones where someone had multiple broken bones, became paralyzed (quadriplegic or paraplegic) or had a serious back injury, had a serious head injury, etc.

I have been blogging about car accidents in Atlanta, and in a recent entry I talked about the surprising fact that - at least according to the 2008 Fatality Analysis Reporting System figures available from NHTSA, more pedestrian deaths occurred in the winter months than in the summer months, when you might expect that more people would be walking. In this entry, I would like to talk about the time of day that pedestrians were killed here in Atlanta.

I am an Atlanta pedestrian death lawyer and I have found that the pedestrian deaths I have dealt with have been fairly evenly split between daytime and nighttime wrecks. But from the 2008 FARS data, we can see that the majority of the accidents in which a pedestrian was hit and killed occurred at night. Of the 18 car accidents that happened during 2008, 13 of them happened at night.

Accidents that Occurred at Night (After Daylight Hours)

When a pedestrian was hit and killed here in Atlanta on Rockwood Avenue and Commercial Avenue on January 12, 2008, the accident happened at night, at 7 p.m.

On February 2, 2008, a car struck and killed an Atlanta pedestrian at 7:46 p.m. at night at Fairburn and Thompson Dr.

On March 14, 2008, a pedestrian died after a crash that took place at 10:38 p.m. along Campbellton Rd. near Childress Dr.

On April 2, 2008, a car hit and killed a pedestrian crossing at Atlanta's Coca Cola Place and Butler St. at 8:38 p.m.

On July 6, 2008, a pedestrian died at 3:53 a.m. while walking along I-75 in the Atlanta city limits.

A pedestrian also died in the early morning hours, on September 6, 2008, in a crash that occurred at 1:16 a.m. on I-285 near Langford Pkwy.

The September 8, 2008 Atlanta crash that left a pedestrian dead happened at 10:41 p.m. at night at Ponce De Leon Avenue and Barnett Street.

The next month, on October 2, 2008, a car hit and killed a pedestrian at 2:59 a.m. as he walked along the I-75 ramp at 17th St. here within Atlanta's city limits.

November 25, 2008, saw one pedestrian killed at 7:26 p.m. at Northside Dr. and Western Avenue.

The next day an Atlanta pedestrian was struck and killed at Peachtree St. and Harris St. at 10:44 p.m.

On December 10, 2008, a walker was killed at 12:25 a.m. in downtown Atlanta at Central Avenue and Trinity Avenue.

The December 25, 2008, accident that killed a person walking along Buford Highway happened at 1:55 a.m.

The December 30, 2008, accident that occurred on Campbellton Road and Fairburn Road here in Atlanta happened at 7:38 p.m. at night.

Accidents that Occurred During Daylight Hours

On March 21, 2008, a car hit an Atlanta pedestrian at 8:21 a.m. on Coca Cola Place near the Butler St. intersection.

April 25, 2008, saw a pedestrian killed at 5:32 p.m.

When a pedestrian was killed on June 20, 2008, in a 6:58 a.m. collision with a car, it was at least partially daylight. The sun rose that day at 6:27 a.m., and so the light would have been bright. The accident took place at Custer Ave. and Funtston St.

A pedestrian was hit and killed at 11:15 a.m. in the morning on May 6, 2008.

In October 27, 2008, a car hit and killed a pedestrian at 3:37 p.m. in the afternoon.

You don't have to be an Atlanta car accident lawyer like I am to figure out that when a car hits a pedestrian, the pedestrian fares the worse of the two. But when you are a car accident attorney, you see more than your share of the tragedy that is generated when a pedestrian is struck and killed by a car. So I plan to devote several entries to looking at the pedestrian wrecks that happen here in Atlanta in hopes we can figure out how to lower the number of them. Today I want to talk specifically about where the pedestrian wrecks occurred in 2008.

The first conclusion I want to draw is that most - although by no means all -- of Atlanta's 2008 fatal accidents occurred at intersections.

On January 12, 2008, a pedestrian was struck and killed at the intersection of Rockwood Ave. and Commercial Ave.

On February 2, 2008, a pedestrian was struck and killed at the intersection of SR-1439 / Fairburn Rd. and Thompson Dr. here in Atlanta.

March 4, 2008, saw another fatal pedestrian crash, this one on Campbellton Rd. / SR-154 near its intersection with Childress Dr.

Police reported another Atlanta pedestrian killed in a car accident on March 21, 2008, this one on Coca Cola Place downtown, near the intersection with Butler St.

On April 2, 2008, a pedestrian was stuck and killed on the Lenox Connector / Buckhead Loop / SR-141 at Tower Place.

That same month, two Atlanta pedestrians were struck in an April 25, 2008, car wreck. The accident happened at the intersection of W Whitehall St. SW /SR-14 and York Avenue. Only one of the two pedestrians was killed.

In the month of May, one pedestrian was killed by a car at the intersection of Marietta Blvd. and Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy. on May 6, 2008.

June saw another fatal pedestrian car accident. On June 20, 2008, a car hit a pedestrian crossing at Custer Avenue and Funtston St. here in Atlanta.

In July 2008, three pedestrians were struck and killed as they were walking on I-75. The accident occurred on the 6th of the month.

Two pedestrians were killed in two different car wrecks in the month of September. On September 6, 2008, a car struck and killed a pedestrian along I-285 at Langford Pkwy. / SR-166 in Atlanta. Two days later, on September 8, 2008, another pedestrian was killed at the crossing of Ponce De Leon Avenue and Barnett St.

The next month Atlanta again saw two pedestrians killed in separate accidents. On October 2, 2008, a pedestrian walking along the I-75 ramp at 17th St. was struck and killed by an automobile. Toward the end of the month, on October 27, 2008, a pedestrian died after being hit by a car on I-20 near McDaniel St.

The next month saw two pedestrian death accidents in quick succession. The first accident occurred on November 25, 2008, when an Atlanta pedestrian was crossing at the intersection of Northside Dr. / SR-3 at Western Ave. The second fatal pedestrian crash happened the very next day on November 26, 2008, when a car hit and killed a pedestrian crossing at the juncture of Peachtree St. and Harris St. in downtown Atlanta.

December was the worst month of the year for Atlanta pedestrians. A pedestrian died after being struck by a car at the intersection of Central Avenue and Trinity Ave. on December 10, 2008. Another pedestrian was struck and killed on Christmas Day, December 25, 2008, while he was walking along Buford Highway / SR-13. Finally, on December 30, 2008, a car struck and killed a pedestrian at the corner of Campbellton Dr. and Fairburn Rd.

The information in this blog has come from the FARS database that is maintained by NHTSA.

I am an Atlanta car accident lawyer, and today I will be blogging about some serious problems we have in Atlanta with deaths of pedestrians in car accidents.

During 2008, 18 of Atlanta's 54 fatal car accidents involved pedestrians. In those 18 accidents, 21 pedestrians were struck, and 20 of them died as a result of being hit by a car.

Atlanta police listed three of the accidents as involving drunk drivers.

Surprisingly, the accidents did not seem to congregate in the warmer months of the year. My assumption had been that more Atlanta pedestrians would be hit and killed in the winter months because more people would be out walking. In fact, however, the pedestrian deaths were distributed across the months in this pattern:

January - 1 pedestrian car accident occurred here in Atlanta
February - 1 pedestrian hit and killed by a car
March - 2 cars hit and killed pedestrians in our city
April - 2 car accidents in which pedestrians died
May - 1 auto crash involving death of a walker in Atlanta
June - 1 auto incident in which a pedestrian was tragically killed
July - 1 car accident in which a pedestrian died
August - 0 pedestrians were killed in car accidents here in Atlanta
September - 2 auto accidents involving pedestrians
October - 2 pedestrians were hit by cars in separate incidents
November - 2 pedestrians died after being hit by cars in two separate accidents
December - 3 different pedestrian crashes occurred in the city limits of Atlanta

Ironically, the summer month of August is the only month in which Atlanta had no pedestrian deaths at all.

Looking at these numbers, I was surprised to see that the truth about pedestrian accidents - for Atlanta, that is - is the opposite of what I was expecting. More pedestrians, not fewer pedestrians, were killed in the winter months of 2008 than in the summer months that year. Seven of Atlanta's pedestrian wrecks occurred in the winter months of November, December, January and February. The rate continued through the "between" months of March, April, September and October, which had virtually the same number of crashes that the winter months did; in those fall and spring months, 8 pedestrians were hit and killed by car, amounting to 2 per month. But the months with the fewest crashes involving pedestrians were Atlanta's warmest months: May, June, July and August. Combined, those four months had only three car accidents in which pedestrians were hit by cars and, as I mentioned earlier, August did not have any pedestrian accidents whatsoever.

Perhaps one of the reasons that the deaths increased in winter months is that drivers are were less likely to be expecting walkers and pedestrians on their regular driving routes. Certainly we can see from these numbers that Atlanta drivers need to be on the alert for pedestrians no matter the time of year or the weather.

I am pulling these stats from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) that is maintained and published by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The database contains information about all of the fatal accidents that occur throughout the nation in a given year. The database has some weaknesses - for example, it can only be searched one year at a time, and it does not include serious car wrecks (that leave people with serious injuries, quadriplegic, paraplegic, with head injuries, etc.) if no one actually died in those accidents. Still, however, the database is quite remarkable and has a wealth of useful information in it.

More people died in car crashes in December 2008 than in any other month of the year. In fact, the "contest" wasn't even close. Eleven people died in ten separate December car accidents here in Atlanta. The next worst month was April, when seven people died in collisions. Three of the collisions involved pedestrians Perhaps predictably, given the holiday season, Atlanta police said 3 of the 10 wrecks were caused by DUI drivers who were under the influence while driving.

I am an Atlanta auto wreck lawyer, and I have been chronicling the 2008 and 2009 car accidents around Atlanta. I am up to December 2008. I am using the FARS database in order to get the data I am using.

The month got off to a bad start, when a drunken driver caused a fatal, two-car collision here in Atlanta. The accident happened at the corner of Boulevard Dr. and Hansell St. at 7:19 p.m., and Atlanta police listed the cause of the accident as being a driver who was DUI.

Two days later, on December 3, 2008, three-vehicles were involved in a car collision at the intersection of Moreland Dr. and Isa Dr. One person died in the wreck, which occurred in the evening, at 9:15 p.m.

A driver died when he crashed his car at the corner of Pulliam St. and Dodd Ave. in Atlanta. The accident occurred at 7:04 a.m. in the morning.

On December 10, 2008, a pedestrian was struck and killed by a car while the pedestrian was crossing at the juncture of Central Avenue and Trinity Avenue. That accident occurred just after midnight, at 12:25 a.m.

Atlanta got a brief, week's respite, and then another fatal car crash occurred on December 18th. The single-vehicle accident happened at 2:06 p.m. in the afternoon on Atlanta's Downtown Connector, where I-75 and I-85 join. Both the driver and the passenger who were in the vehicle were killed.

December 19, 2008, got the unpleasant distinction of being a day on which two different fatal car crashes occurred. The first accident happened shortly after midnight, at 12:24 a.m. That accident happened on I-75 at the West Paces Ferry exit area. A driver died in the one-car crash. Then, 23 hours later, two cars collided at the intersection of Northside Dr. / SR-13 and Wells St. The accident happened at 11:36 p.m., and left one person dead.

Sadly, on Christmas Day a pedestrian was struck and killed by a drunk driver. The pedestrian, who was walking along Buford Highway / SR-13, was hit at 1:55 a.m.
The good news for December 2008 was that no one died on New Year's Eve before midnight. Unfortunately, the day before more than compensated for that good news. Two people were killed in separate accidents on December 30th. First, at 2:39 a.m., a drunk driver crashed on Peachtree Battle Ave. at the intersection of Sagamore Dr. just west of Northside Parkway. One person died in the car wreck, and Atlanta police listed the fact that the driver was DUI as a contributing factor. That evening, at 7:38 p.m., a pedestrian was hit by a car while crossing at Campbellton Rd. and Fairburn Rd. A second car became involved in the collision as well.

Why do we have so many deadly car wrecks here in Atlanta? And what can we do to cut back on them? I practice law here in Atlanta, and I represent people who need an Atlanta car accident lawyer. I have met with families who have been devastated because they lost someone they loved very dearly in a car crash, and I have seen people with serious injuries struggling to rebuild their physical health and deal with the crushing financial and emotional consequences of a serious personal injury from an auto collision. I have been blogging about the car accidents that happened in 2008 and 2009 (the latest data available) in order to see whether we can see trends that would help us cut back on these crashes.

Today I will be talking about the deadly car crashes that happened in the city of Atlanta in November 2008. That month five people died in car accidents. Atlanta police attributed one of those five fatal car wrecks to a drunken driver.

On November 2, 2008, an Atlanta driver died when he crashed his car on I-285 at Langford Pkwy. / SR-166. The accident happened at 1:27 a.m.

Then, some two weeks later, a three-car crash occurred just after midnight, at 12:41 a.m. The car crash, which happened at the intersection of Moreland Ave. /SR-42 and Constitution Rd. here in Atlanta, left one person dead.

On November 25, 2008, a pedestrian was hit and killed at the corner of Northside Dr. / SR-3 and Western Ave. Two different vehicles wound up involved in the accident, which took place at 7:26 p.m. Atlanta police said that the wreck was caused by a DUI / drunken driver.

November 26, 2008, was an exceptionally bad day for fatal car wrecks here in Atlanta. Two deadly crashes occurred, the first at 11:50 a.m. In that first wreck, one person was killed in a two-car collision on I-285 between the Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. exit and the Cascade Rd. exit. That evening, a pedestrian was struck and killed at the intersection of Peachtree St. and Harris St. The accident happened at 10:44 p.m.

I am pulling this data from the FARS database. FARS stands for "Fatality Analysis Reporting System." FARS is maintained by a federal agency, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. By law, all 50 states and also U.S. territories are supposed to provide fatal car crash data to NHTSA for inclusion in FARS. The idea behind the system is to allow people to spot trends and particular dangers in the roadway and street system as a whole, or in a particular area. Obviously my searches dealt with Atlanta.

One surprising thing about November - and December - 2008 was that so many pedestrians lost their lives in those two months. I was expecting to see that fewer pedestrians were killed in the colder, winter months, because fewer people are out walking. Nonetheless, five pedestrians were killed in those two months -- two in November, and three more in December.