I am a Georgia
car accident attorney, and have been writing a series of blog entries about car wrecks around
Georgia. Today’s entry will be on car wrecks in Coweta County, Georgia.
The
Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (“GOHS”) collects statistics about car accidents in each of
the counties in Georgia, and it issued a new report just a couple of weeks
ago. I was very excited to see the new report come out, because it means
that as I write my entry on Coweta County, I can give you the most up-to-date
information.
The GOHS report covers car accidents in Coweta County (and other counties
in Georgia) from 2005 to 2009. The report collected information from Coweta
County’s cities – Newnan, Sharpsburg, Turin, Senoia, Moreland,
Grantville and Haralson – as well as from the rural areas around
Coweta County.
In the year 2005, Coweta County had 3652 car accidents. The number of car
and truck wrecks in Coweta County decreased very slightly in 2006, to
3458, but moved up again in 2007, when 3717 car crashes occurred on Coweta
County roads. Coweta County saw no improvement in 2008, when 3727 cars
and trucks crashed on Coweta County roads, but – like the rest of
Georgia – Coweta County saw a very significant improvement in 2009.
In that year, the number of automobile crashes dropped dramatically, to 2997.
Like the number of car accidents, the number of injuries in the car accidents
remained high for the first four years of the survey, but decreased perceptibly
in 2009. In 2005, 1783 people were injured in car crashes in Coweta County.
In 2006, the number of people injured in car wrecks in Coweta County dropped
to 1505, but the number moved back up in 2007, which 1618 people were
injured on Coweta County’s roads. Coweta County saw no relief in
2008, when 1639 people were injured, but it saw a very impressive improvement
in 2009, when the number of injuries in car accidents on Coweta County’s
roadways decreased to 1261.
The most surprising changes came with the number of fatalities. In 2005,
32 people tragically lost their lives in car accidents in Coweta County.
The number of people who died in car wrecks in Coweta County moved slightly
downward in 2006, but 29 people still died in automobile crashes that
year. Coweta County had a reason to be pleased that the numbers –
while still appalling — were still trending downward in 2007, when
a still-tragic 22 people died in car accidents in Coweta County. The County
showed even more progress in 2008, although 14 people still were killed
in car wrecks in Coweta County that year, and then Coweta had a surprising
and even more impressive drop in 2009. In 2009, 8 people were killed in
car wrecks in Coweta County. Although the number was terrible, Coweta
County had managed to reduce the number of deaths in car accidents to
just ¼ of the number of fatal accidents that had occurred
in Coweta County in 2005.
Without question the highest number of fatalities in car accidents occurred
in and around Newnan. I-85 runs near Newnan, and a very significant number
of death in car wrecks occurred along that stretch of highway, including
around the Grantville area. Highway 278/ Highway 27/State Road 16, also
known as Main Street and Newnan Road, were dangerous as they ran from
Carrollton down through Newnan and toward Moreland. Several people were
tragically killed in car accidents along Highway 16 as it comes out of
Sharpsburg and Turin and moves toward Senoia. A number of fatality accidents
occurred along State Road 34, Bullboro Drive/Colonel Joe M. Jackson Medal
of Honor Highway, as it runs out of Newnan and toward Peachtree City.
A number of accidents occurred in the stretch between Newnan and Moreland,
and while the GOHS map is a little vague, these fatal car accidents were
probably along Highway 29, which runs south from Newnan into Moreland,
and Highway 27 and State Road 41, which run south out of Moreland toward
Luthersville. Still more fatal car wrecks occurred along Franklin Rd./State
Road 34, which runs from Newnan toward Heard County and then the Alabama border.
The author of this blog is Lee Wallace, who practices
car accident law in counties throughout Georgia.