The Sad, Sad Truth: Car Wrecks in Georgia, By the (Very Depressing) Numbers

 The Georgia Department of Transportation ("DOT") has given us some pretty serious food for thought about car wrecks in Georgia, in a report it issued in January 2008. The report, Crash Analysis, Statistics & Incidents, has some very sobering facts about the car accidents occurring around Georgia, for people like me, a Georgia car wreck attorney, and for all Georgians.

1. From 2000 to 2006, over 6 million people were involved in car accidents in Georgia. DOT reminds us that this means 2, 394 people are involved in car crashes every single day.

2. In that same period, one million people were injured in car or truck accidents in Georgia.

3. In a single week, 2,500 people are injured in car accidents on Georgia roads.

4. Even more tragically, 31 people die every week because they were in a car wreck somewhere in Georgia.

5. Between 2000 and 2006, 11,345 people died in car crashes in Georgia.

6. The most dangerous roads in Georgia are not the speedways through metropolitan Atlanta, or the fast Interstate roads crossing through Georgia. Instead, the most dangerous road in Georgia are the simple, two-lane roads criss-crossing rural Georgia. https://askcompetentlawyer.com/ While far too many people die in metro Atlanta car accidents, twice as many are killed in car crashes in rural Georgia.

7. Drivers whose vehicles leave the road are far more likely to die than drivers whose vehicles stay on the road. 41% of the people who die in car wrecks in Georgia die when their vehicle leaves the road. A shocking half of all people who are involved in rollover accidents either die or are injured. Worse, rollover accidents are on the increase. Fatal rollover accidents increased by 41.2% from 2000 to 2006.

8. When vehicles crash into a fixed object - like a median or a tree - one third of the occupants die.

9. The vast majority of road segments in Georgia are straight. But when a roadway is curved, watch out. An absolutely staggering one of every two fatal accidents in Georgia occurs on a curved section of the road.

10. When a two-way road is combined with a curved road, the results are frightening. 62% of these crashes are fatal.

11. One quarter of all Georgia traffic fatalities occur when car accidents happen at intersections. Intersections without any traffic control are the most dangerous of all - 60% of the vehicles that wind up in fatal intersection collisions were at intersections without any traffic control. Most of these intersections are in rural counties.

12. The combination of rural roads and pickup trucks can be lethal. A full 60% of fatal rollover crashes involving pickup trucks happened in rural Georgia.

13. Pickup trucks are far more likely to be in a fatal collision than cars are. One third of the fatalities in Georgia come from a crash involving a pickup truck. In fact, twice as many people are killed in wrecks involving pickup trucks than are involved in accidents involving only cars. The problem is increasing, too: fatal crashes involving pickup trucks increased 15% between 2000 and 2006.

14. Motorcycle crashes are dangerous anywhere. They are 12 times more likely to result in a death than crashes involving passenger cars. Only 16% of the occupants of cars are injured or killed in a crash, but 72% of the motorcyclists involved in a collision are either injured or killed.