I write a blog about car accidents from an Atlanta car accident lawyer’s
perspective, and I am devoting a number of entries to seeing whether we
can track data about the accidents that have occurred in the past in Atlanta,
and use that to help avoid serious personal injuries and deaths in car
accidents here in Atlanta in the future.
I am using data from the “Fatality Analysis Reporting System”,
more commonly known as
FARS. This enormous database is administered by the National Highway and Traffic
Safety Administration (“NHTSA”), and it collects data about
all of the deadly car wrecks that happen anywhere in the entire United
States. FARS only tracks data about car accidents in which someone dies,
however. An accident is not included even if it resulted in someone becoming
a paraplegic, a quadriplegic, breaking multiple bones, or receiving a
serious head injury – unless the accident also involved a death.
Despite the limitation, the FARS database is a one-of-a-kind tracking system.
The database can be sorted by region and city, and so I limited my data
to accidents that have occurred in Atlanta. Today I am going to give a
broad-brush description of the fatal auto wrecks that occurred in 2008
here in Atlanta. I will be covering February in today’s entry.
Five people died in February, including one pedestrian. Pedestrian deaths
tend to decrease in the colder, winter months, since fewer people are
out walking, but a pedestrian was killed in the first Atlanta fatal car
accident of the month. On February 2, 2008, a car struck a person crossing
the intersection of Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy and Law Street at 7:46 p.m.
In February, that time of day would have been dark.
On February 4, 2008, a drunk driver had a one-car crash on Lake Avenue,
near where it intersects with Waddell. The accident took place at 7:55
p.m., when it would have been dark. The police did report that drinking
had been involved in the collision.
On February 9, 2008, two vehicles collided on Peachtree Rd. / SR-141 near
Peachtree Dunwoody Rd. and Roxboro Rd. One person was killed in the car
wreck, which happened at 6:51 p.m., again, after dark.
Later in February, on the 20th, a deadly car crash occurred on I-285, between
the Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy exit and the I-20 exit. Four different vehicles
would up involved in the pile-up, and one person was killed.
The final accident for February 2008, took place at 9:17 a.m., on the 25th.
The accident involved two cars that collided at the intersection of Tech
Parkway and State St. One of the drivers died as a result of the crash.
In total, three of the February car wrecks happened after dark, and two
occurred during daylight hours. One involved DUI, and one involved a pedestrian.
One important point to notice is that 7 of the 54 Atlanta auto accidents
that occurred in 2008 happened on I-285 or at the various entrances and
exits associated with the highway. Clearly I-285 is one of the most dangerous
roads in the city of Atlanta.