The month of August saw a disturbing series of accidents caused by motorists driving the wrong way on highways and freeways in and around the metro Atlanta region.These accidents ended with catastrophic injuries and multiple fatalities.
The first accident that occurred earlier in the month involved a motorist who was driving the wrong way on Georgia 400, and crashed her car into another vehicle.The driver of the other car died in the accident.
Just a few days later, there was another wrong-way driving related accident, this one occurring in Gwinnett County.In this accident, the wrong-way driver crashed his vehicle head-on into another car on Georgia Highway 316 near Dacula.At least 2 people were critically injured in this accident, and victims had to be cut out of the damaged vehicle.
The most recent accident occurred at the end of the month, and involved a motorist driving the wrong way on Interstate 85 near Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.The driver crashed his vehicle into another car, and the resulting accident killed 2 people.The wrong way driver was also killed in the accident.
In this accident and at least one other, the collision had been preceded by a number of frantic calls to 911 by motorists in the vicinity, who spotted a motorist driving the wrong way.
The Georgia Department of Transportation has been unable to explain why there has been a recent spike in the number of wrong-way accidents.According to Department officials, they are investigating these accidents, and focusing on the signage and markings in these areas to determine whether any error in reading the signs contributed to these accidents.However, the Department believes that most of these accidents were the result of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Unfortunately, the Atlanta car accident attorneys at our firm see too many of these types of accidents.Complete investigations into these specific accidents are still ongoing, and it will be weeks before it can be confirmed that impaired driving was a factor.However, it is commonly accepted that most wrong way-driving related accidents are strongly linked to impaired driving.
A motorist who is driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is much more likely to make the kind of errors that lead to driving on the wrong side of the highway.Additionally, a driver who is impaired is also much more likely to misread highway signs and markers, or to miss highway markers altogether, increasing the risk of a wrong-way accident.Our Georgia accident attorneys always encourage all those celebrating to use a designated driver.Stay safe!