I write a legal blog about Georgia and Atlanta car wrecks, and I have been
talking about how many people were killed on Atlanta’s streets and
highways during 2008. In just the months of July and August, ten people
were killed in car accidents on Atlanta’s roads. Three of those
10 were pedestrians, and one of the wrecks involved a DUI driver who was
under the influence at the time of the crash.
Six people, including three pedestrians, were killed in car wrecks during
the month of July.
The month of July started off with a horrifying car accident on I-75. Three
Atlanta pedestrians were struck and killed while they were walking along
the highway at 3:53 in the morning.
Three days later, on July 9th, a driver was killed in a single-vehicle
auto crash on White St., near Hopkins St. The crash happened at 7:10 p.m.
in the evening.
July 22, 2008, saw yet another fatal car crash here in Atlanta. That day,
one person was killed in a two-car crash that happened at the corner of
Sylvan Rd. and Deckner Ave. That crash happened in the early evening,
at 5:05 p.m.
On July 26, 2008, two cars collided on I-85 at 17th St. One person died
in the car collision, which happened at 8:06 p.m. at night.
In August 2008, Atlanta had four fatal auto wrecks. Four people died in
those wrecks, one of which was alleged to have been caused by a drunken driver.
In the evening of August 8th, at 10:19 p.m., a car crash along I-75 left
one person dead. Only one vehicle was involved in the wreck, and the driver
of that vehicle was the one killed.
Three days later the driver of a vehicle died in a crash at the corner
of University Ave. and Coleman St. The August 11th car accident happened
at 11:10 p.m. at night, and Atlanta police said the driver had been drinking
and driving.
One person was killed in a two-car crash at the corner of Campbellton Rd.
and Fairburn Rd. The August 14th accident happened at 4:43 p.m. in the
afternoon. I have mentioned in an earlier entry in my legal blog that
Campbellton Rd. has seen more than its share of fatal car accidents.
The final accident of the month happened on the last day of August. On
August 31, a car crashes on Jonesboro Rd / SR-54 at the intersection with
Sawtell Ave. The accident, which happened at 1:27 a.m. in the morning,
left one person dead
To gather my data, I use the
FARS database. FARS, or Fatality Analysis Reporting System, is a database of information
about all of the fatal crashes that occur in the United States or in U.S.
territories. The information is collected and made available to the public
by NHTSA, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. The
database collects an enormous amount of data, and is extremely useful.
The system does have one significant limitation, though; the data only
includes information about crashes in which someone died. If no one died
in the wreck, then information about the wreck is not included in the
database even if someone received serious personal injuries, broke bones,
became paralyzed, or suffered a traumatic brain injury.