I am a car accident lawyer here in Atlanta, and I blog about car wrecks
and car accidents that happen here and in other parts of Georgia. One
of the things I have been looking at is the history of crashes. My hope
is that by taking a look at where we have had crashes in the past, we
can see some patterns. Once we see the patterns of how accidents are occurring,
we may be able to figure out ways to decrease the number of Atlantans
who wind up with serious personal injuries in car accidents here in our
city and the number of Atlanta families who lose loved ones in these serious
car accidents every year.
To compile this data, I have been using the FARS data provided on
city-data.com. FARS stands for “Fatality Analysis Reporting System”, and
it is a computer database of information about car crashes from all over
the United States. The database is maintained by NHTSA, the National Highway
and Traffic Safety Administration. The FARS data only contains information
about car crashes in which someone died. Even if someone is very seriously
injured – e.g., receives a serious brain injury or paralysis –
the accident is not tracked in the FARS data unless someone else involved
in the accident died. While this limitation clearly decreases the amount
of data, the system still is the most comprehensive collection of data
available and is very useful for tracking serious accidents.
I am going to begin by doing several blog entries describing when and where
the fatal car crashes took place around Atlanta in 2008. I have already
covered the crashes for 2009 (which is the latest data available).
In 2008, Atlanta had 54 fatal car accidents. Fifty-nine people died in
those 54 car crashes. (A truly astonishing 21 of those 59 deaths were
of pedestrians. In other words, 36% of the people who were killed in car
accidents in Atlanta were not even in a car at the time they died. I will
get into more detail about that fact in a later post.)
Three people were killed in Atlanta car collisions in January 2008. A pedestrian
was killed at the intersection of Rockwood Ave. and Commercial Ave. on
January 12, 2008. The accident took place at 7 p.m., when it would have
been dark.
The second collision took place nearly two weeks later, on January 23,
2008. This second accident happened at the intersection of Lee Street
/ SR-14 and Campbellton Rd. The accident was very large, ultimately resulting
in a 4-car pile-up. One of the people died during the car crash sequence.
A third person died in an auto wreck that happened just four days later,
on January 27, 2008. This second accident involved just one vehicle, and
it happened at 6:54 a.m. on the intersection of Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy.
and Law Street.
After I finish discussing the wrecks that occurred in Atlanta in 2008,
I plan to discuss where some of the most dangerous areas for car wrecks
seem to be. I have noticed that Campbellton Rd., and particularly the
part of Campbellton Rd. around I-285, has an unusually large number of
car wrecks, and I definitely will discuss that road in particular.