Be careful driving on this President’s Day!
President’s Day may not seem like a day on which a lot of car crashes
would occur here in Georgia. But in fact, the President’s Day weekend
can be deadly. In 2009 alone, 14 people died in car accidents on Georgia
highways and streets.*
I am a car accident lawyer here in Georgia, and I started doing some research
so that I could let my blog readers know about some of the dangerous holiday
weekends for Georgia drivers, passengers and pedestrians. I was expecting
to find a substantial number of deaths in car accidents over New Year’s
Eve, and unfortunately I did. However, I was surprised to discover that
a significant number of people are killed in car accidents on holidays
I don’t normally associate with car accidents. The fact that so
many people die here in Georgia over the President’s Day weekend
took me by surprise.
The 14 deaths in Georgia auto wrecks in 2009 were not just limited to the
metro Atlanta area. In fact, people died in car collisions that occurred
all over the state of Georgia.
On February 15, 2009, a person was killed in a President’s Day holiday
car crash in Bryan County.
One person died in Metter, Georgia, in Candler County, on February 16, 2009.
Three people died over the President’s Day holiday in DeKalb County.
The three died in separate accidents. One of the wrecks occurred on February
13, 2009 in Chamblee, Georgia. A second car collision occurred on the
same day in DeKalb County. The third DeKalb County wreck happened on February 17, 2009.
One person died in Fannin County, Georgia, on February 14, 2009.
Fulton County saw one accident and one death on the same day, February 14, 2009.
One person was killed in a car accident in Henry County on February 16, 2009.
Laurens County saw a deadly car accident, too. The accident in Laurens
County occurred on February 15, 2009.
One person died in an auto wreck in Murray County over the President’s
Day weekend. The wreck occurred on February 16, 2009.
Pierce County also saw one death from a car crash. That car wreck occurred
on February 13, 2009.
One fatal car accident occurred in Reynolds, Georgia, in Taylor County.
One person died there on February 14, 2009.
Both Ware and Whitfield Counties saw one fatal car crash each over the
holiday weekend. The Whitfield County car crash occurred on February 14,
2009, and the Ware County car accident occurred one day later, on February 15, 2009.
For me, the take-away from my research was that I need to be careful driving
on this holiday weekend. While traditionally we don’t associate
President’s Day with heavy drinking and DUI problems, or with a
large number of accidents, the high volume of cars on the roads means
that in fact too many people will be killed over this holiday weekend.
* To collect my data, I used the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (“FARS”)
database that is maintained by the National Highway and Traffic Safety
Administration. The
FARS database collects only fatal car accident data from around the United States. FARS
does not compile data about serious personal injury car accidents unless
the wrecks also involve a death. The most recent information available
from FARS is for the 2009 calendar year.