I handle Atlanta car wreck lawsuits, and I have been blogging about the
statistics on car wrecks here in our city. I am using data from the FARS
(“Fatality Analysis Reporting System”) system, as reported on
City-Data.com, to see whether we can identify some trends and weaknesses in the road
system here in Atlanta.
From the 2009 data, we can see that some roads were particularly dangerous
for Atlanta drivers.
Some of the findings were pretty obvious. You would expect a number of
deadly crashes on the heavily-traveled, multi-lane highways around Atlanta,
and the data confirms the problem. Deadly car crashes occurred on all
of the major highways around Atlanta. Two people died on the multi-lane
road SR-400. Two more were killed along I-285 / SR-407, which runs around
the city. I-75, another enormous, multi-lane road that crosses the city
from southeast to northwest, saw five car wrecks that caused deaths. Four
more deaths from car accidents occurred along I-85, which runs in the
opposite direction from I-75, heading from southwest to northeast.
I-75, I-285, I-85 and I-20 are all limited access mega-lane interstates
that course through Atlanta, but a number of other major roads were exceptionally
dangerous, too. Several other roads that do not have the completely limited
access that the interstates do nonetheless saw a disproportionate number
of deadly automobile accidents.
Three people died in car crashes on Moreland Ave. / SR-42. Two were killed
in automobile wrecks along Cleveland Avenue. Two people were killed in
fatal car accidents on Boulevard. Two people died on Metropolitan Pkwy
/ SR-3 in Atlanta due to auto crashes. Two people died on SR-400 for the
same reason. Ponce De Leon / SR-8 / SR-78 /SR-29, SR-278 had three different
car crashes that left people dead. Two people were killed in fatal car
accidents along Memorial Dr. / SR-154 in Atlanta. Another two people died
in car accidents that occurred along SR-3 / Northside Dr. / Northside
Pkwy in Atlanta.
Deadly car accidents also occurred on Abner Place, Andrews Dr., Barge Rd.,
Boulevard Granada, Briarcliff Rd., Browns Mill Rd., Campbellton Rd., Cassanova
St., Claire Dr., D.L. Hollowell Pkwy., Green St., Highland Ave., Hobart
Dr., I-20, Lawton St., Lee St., Lenox Road, Mary George Ave., McDaniel
St., Metropolitan Pkwy., Monroe Dr., Moreland Ave., Nacoochee Dr., N.
Eugenia Place, Northside Dr., Paces Ferry Rd., Parker Avenue, Peachtree
St., Pryor Cir., S. Central Avenue, Sanders Ave., S Freedom Pkwy / SR-10,
Roswell Rd. / SR-9 / SR-19, SR-403, St. Charles Pl., St. Johns Ave., Sylvan
Rd., Vanderbilt Ct., Whitewall St., and York Ave.
Almost all of the roads where people died were multi-lane roads on with
higher speed limits. As you would expect, virtually none of the car wreck
deaths occurred on the quieter, residential roads. People may suffer serious
personal injuries in car accidents on those residential streets, but in
general the accidents along those roads tend to be lower-impact and at
slower speeds, and so fewer of the crashes in these areas cause car accident deaths.