Recently
NorthFulton.com had a very informative and useful article about the intersections in North
Fulton that have seen the most car wrecks. The newspaper looked at the
intersections that saw the most car collisions during calendar year 2011.
I am a lawyer who represents car accident victims, and I thought the information
the newspaper gave out was exactly the kind that would interest my legal
blog readers.
When NorthFulton.com looked at the statistics for intersections in the
city of Johns Creek, it named four intersections to its “most dangerous” list.
The intersection of Medlock Bridge Road and State Bridge Road had the single
largest number of accidents. 88 car wrecks occurred in that one intersection.
The newspaper asked Johns Creek to comment on the statistic, but according
to the article the city did not respond, or say whether it intended to
do some work in the intersection to try to make it safer. According to
NorthFulton.com, the city is waiting for a presentation by a consultant,
who will be addressing the city council on November 26th, and talking
about the ten worst intersections in the city – which presumably
would include these five.
In fact, three of the worst four intersections were on Medlock Bridge
Road. The second most dangerous intersection was Medlock Bridge Road and
Abbotts Bridge Road. 66 car collisions occurred at the one intersection in 2011.
Another 52 car crashes occurred where State Bridge Road crosses Jones Bridge
Road. Drivers had 39 car wrecks where Medlock Bridge Road intersects with
Old Alabama Road.
All told, 15.8% of all car collisions in the city of Johns Creek occurred
in five intersections. The newspaper did not name the fifth intersection
to which it referred.
Relatively speaking, Johns Creek intersections had fewer car crashes than
Alpharetta ones. The 2010 U.S. Census reported that the population of
Johns Creek is 76,728, putting it between Alpharetta, Georgia (population
59,397) and Roswell, Georgia (population 91,168). Alpharetta’s top
four worst intersections had 147 car wrecks, 114 car crashes, 66 auto
collisions and 49 automobile crashes, respectively, for a total of 376
collision (just in these four intersections) in 2011. In contrast, the
four worst intersections in Johns Creek had 88 car accidents, 66 car crashes,
53 auto wrecks and 39 car wrecks, respectively, for a total of 246 crashes.
The difference is particularly stark given that the population of John
Creek is significantly larger than Alpharetta’s population.
Regardless of how many dangerous intersections it has, however, if a city
finds an intersection that has a disproportionately large number of accidents,
it clearly should take a look at how the intersection is working. First
and most importantly, the city should take that step because it wants
to offer safe roadways to its citizens. Second, the city needs to take
that action in order to avoid running afoul of Georgia law. If a City
fails to take reasonable steps to build and maintain safe roadways, it
can be held liable if people are injured or killed in the intersection.
According to Georgia statute:
A municipality is relieved of any and all liability resulting from or occasioned
by defects in the public roads of its municipal street system when it
has not been negligent in constructing or maintaining the same or when
it has no actual notice thereof or when such defect has not existed for
a sufficient length of time for notice thereof to be inferred.