Six people were killed in separate Atlanta car accidents in September and
October 2008. I have been writing in my car accident lawyer blog about
the crashes that have occurred in and around Atlanta. With this entry,
I am going to talk about when and where fatal accidents occurred in Atlanta
in September and October 2008. (At this time, the database I am using
does not have data past 2009. For information about the 2009 car accidents,
please see my 2009 fatal crashes entries, which began on January 21 of
this year).
The Atlanta police did not cite drunken driving as a cause of any of the
six deadly accidents that occurred in September and October 2008, and
none of the accidents were reported as involving DUI drinking and driving.
However, four of the six car accidents — an unusually high percentage
— involved pedestrians. Over the course of the entire year, 21 of
the 54 car accidents in Atlanta involved pedestrians (which itself was
an unusually high percentage.) Of the 59 people who died in car crashes
during the year, 23 were pedestrians. So while 39% of all car wreck incidents
involved pedestrians, during the months of September and October, 66.6%
of the accidents involved pedestrians. Similarly, while 39% of all of
the people killed in Atlanta car accidents in 2008 were pedestrians, two-thirds
of the people who died in September and October car accidents were pedestrians.
On September 6, 2008, a pedestrian walking on I-285 in Atlanta, at Langford
Pkwy. / SR-166, was struck and killed by a motorist. The car accident
occurred at 1:16 a.m., and so obviously it was dark outside.
Two days later, on September 8, 2008, yet another Atlanta pedestrian was
killed. This pedestrian was killed when hit by a car at the intersection
of Ponce De Leon Ave. and Barnett St. The accident occurred at 10:41 p.m.
September 18, 2008, saw the last fatal car crash of the month, and the
only one in September that did not involve a pedestrian. A driver lost
control of his car at the intersection of Hill St. and Logan St., killing
himself. No other vehicle was involved in the crash.
On October 2, 2008, a pedestrian was killed on the I-75 ramp at 17th St.
The pedestrian was walking along the ramp at 2:59 a.m., when he was struck
and killed by a car.
More than two weeks later, a person was killed in a fatal one-car accident.
The October 20, 2008 accident occurred on University Ave. at 2:10 a.m.
The driver of the car died; he had had no passengers.
The final accident of October 2008 occurred on the 27th of the month. A
pedestrian was killed and two vehicles crashed on I-20 near McDaniel St.
This pedestrian accident occurred in the daylight, at 3:37 p.m.
The data I am using has been gathered by the National Highway Traffic and
Safety Administration (“NHTSA”), and published in the
FARS database. FARS stands for Fatality Analysis Reporting System. The database includes
information from fatal accidents that occurred in all 50 states as well
as the territories of the United States. The database is geared toward
collecting data on fatal auto crashes. Regardless of how horrific the
injuries in a crash may have been, the crash is not included in the database
unless at least one of the people involved in the collision or accident
was killed. Thus, the database does not include some very serious crashes
that left people paralyzed, with broken bones, traumatic brain injuries,
and other serious personal injuries.