Boulevard and Cleveland Avenue: Most Dangerous Streets in Atlanta for Pedestrians

 

In 2009, thirteen pedestrians were killed on Atlanta's streets. Four of those thirteen car wrecks happened on just two of Atlanta streets: Boulevard and Cleveland Ave.

As a pedestrian accident lawyer, I have been looking at how we can use the data about fatal pedestrian crashes to pinpoint particularly dangerous areas in Atlanta for pedestrians. I represent the families of Atlanta pedestrians who have been killed in these wrecks, and the pain for these families is immense. Could we make Atlanta safer for pedestrians?

When I searched the FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System_ data published by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), I was struck by the fact that two roads took a very dominant position in the statistics. Lawyer firm in Michigan. Of the 13 pedestrians who were hit and killed by cars in 2009, two were killed on Boulevard and two on Cleveland Ave.

When you think about it, the chances that two streets would stand out like that are very, very small. I was not able to find a figure for the number of streets there are within the city limits of Atlanta, but it would have to be in the hundreds, perhaps even the thousands. Despite those large numbers, 31% of all Atlanta pedestrian who were killed in car accidents in 2009 died in car accidents that occurred on just two roads.

Today I want to take a look at the two accidents that happened on Boulevard. Boulevard stretches north to south. Its northernmost point intersects with Ponce De Leon Ave. / SR-78 / SR - 278 at the southernmost part of Midtown. To the south of Ponce De Leon Ave., the road is called Boulevard. To the north of Ponce De Leon Ave., the road changes names, and is called Monroe Dr. To the south, Boulevard ends at McDonough Blvd. at the United States federal penitentiary. Boulevard is roughly five miles long.

The two crashes in which a pedestrian was killed happened on opposite ends of Boulevard.

On the northern end of Boulevard, a pedestrian walking along Boulevard was struck and killed by a car at 1:25 a.m. in the morning on March 21, 2009. The Atlanta pedestrian had been walking between Wabash Ave. NE and Ralph McGill Blvd. The driver had one passenger in his car, and neither the driver nor the passenger was killed in the auto collision.

A car killed another pedestrian toward the southern-most part of Boulevard here in Atlanta. The wreck happened at the intersection at Boulevard and Cassanova, two blocks up from Boulevard's terminus at McDonough Blvd. The pedestrian accident happened just before midnight at at 11:54 p.m., on September 6, 2009. The driver of the car had one passenger, and both the driver and the passenger survived the crash.

The Atlanta police did not cite either driver with driving under the influence / DUI, and the FARS database does not cite drinking and driving as playing a role in causing either accident.

More than 15% of all pedestrians who were killed on Atlanta's streets in 2009 died on this one, five-mile stretch of roadway. That number is truly astonishing when you put it into the context of the vast numbers of roads and streets we have in Atlanta.