The Georgia Department of Transportation (“DOT”) has given
us some pretty serious food for thought about car wrecks in Georgia, in
a report it issued in January 2008. The report,
Crash Analysis, Statistics & Incidents, has some very sobering facts about the car accidents occurring around
Georgia, for people like me, a
Georgia car wreck attorney, and for all Georgians.
1. From 2000 to 2006, over 6 million people were involved in car accidents
in Georgia. DOT reminds us that this means 2, 394 people are involved
in car crashes every single day.
2. In that same period, one million people were injured in car or truck
accidents in Georgia.
3. In a single week, 2,500 people are injured in car accidents on Georgia roads.
4. Even more tragically, 31 people die every week because they were in
a car wreck somewhere in Georgia.
5. Between 2000 and 2006, 11,345 people died in car crashes in Georgia.
6. The most dangerous roads in Georgia are not the speedways through metropolitan
Atlanta, or the fast Interstate roads crossing through Georgia. Instead,
the most dangerous road in Georgia are the simple, two-lane roads criss-crossing
rural Georgia. While far too many people die in metro Atlanta car accidents,
twice as many are killed in car crashes in rural Georgia.
7. Drivers whose vehicles leave the road are far more likely to die than
drivers whose vehicles stay on the road. 41% of the people who die in
car wrecks in Georgia die when their vehicle leaves the road. A shocking
half of all people who are involved in rollover accidents either die or
are injured. Worse, rollover accidents are on the increase. Fatal rollover
accidents increased by 41.2% from 2000 to 2006.
8. When vehicles crash into a fixed object – like a median or a tree
– one third of the occupants die.
9. The vast majority of road segments in Georgia are straight. But when
a roadway is curved, watch out. An absolutely staggering one of every
two fatal accidents in Georgia occurs on a curved section of the road.
10. When a two-way road is combined with a curved road, the results are
frightening. 62% of these crashes are fatal.
11. One quarter of all Georgia traffic fatalities occur when car accidents
happen at intersections. Intersections without any traffic control are
the most dangerous of all – 60% of the vehicles that wind up in
fatal intersection collisions were at intersections without any traffic
control. Most of these intersections are in rural counties.
12. The combination of rural roads and pickup trucks can be lethal. A full
60% of fatal rollover crashes involving pickup trucks happened in rural Georgia.
13. Pickup trucks are far more likely to be in a fatal collision than cars
are. One third of the fatalities in Georgia come from a crash involving
a pickup truck. In fact, twice as many people are killed in wrecks involving
pickup trucks than are involved in accidents involving only cars. The
problem is increasing, too: fatal crashes involving pickup trucks increased
15% between 2000 and 2006.
14. Motorcycle crashes are dangerous anywhere. They are 12 times more likely
to result in a death than crashes involving passenger cars. Only 16% of
the occupants of cars are injured or killed in a crash, but 72% of the
motorcyclists involved in a collision are either injured or killed.