Eleven Atlanta Area Residents Die in Pre-Fourth of July Crashes, Four Others Injured

Our hearts and prayers go out to those mentioned in the articles below and their families.  Eight of the nine headlines are on AJC.com right now.  These aren’t archived, they are headlines for their respective counties. 

• Motorcyclist Dies After Crash
• 2 Killed in Fiery Gwinnett Crash
• Teen Killed in Crash Remembered as ‘Outgoing,’ ‘Sweet’
• Police ID Two Killed in Lawrenceville Head-on Collision
• Douglasville Man Dies in Head-on Crash
• Ackworth Man Killed Crossing Cherokee Road
• 3 Injured After Car Goes Down Embankment
• Storms Overturn 8 Tractor Trailers in Henry County
• Lawrenceville Family Members Killed in Miami Identified
• Lawrenceville Girl Struck by Van in Miami Stable

There have been eight traffic related deaths in the metro area in the past few days.  Another three people were injured after a car went down an embankment and just today, powerful storms blew over eight tractor trailers in Henry County.  In a particularly gruesome story that didn’t occur in the metro area but involved a family from Lawrenceville, a mini-van in Miami ran off the road and on to a sidewalk killing three members of the Lawrenceville family as they were leaving a Florida Marlins game.  The fourth member, a ten year-old girl is in stable condition.

If there were any other reason for these deaths, they would be combined into a major news story.  Something like; ‘Eleven Atlanta Area Residents Die in Pre-Fourth of July Crashes, Four Others Injured’  There is a possibility that this will be picked up as a news story sometime this week.  However, that possibility only exists because it is a holiday week that is notoriously dangerous.  Any other week, and there is no way these accidents would be grouped into a larger story about a trend in traffic related deaths.  These types of accidents are so commonplace in our society that we barely blink when we see the headline and often times the story includes details about how long a road or intersection was closed after the crash as if we should be concerned with commute times.

Every time I see a headline like the ones above, I wonder if it might have been prevented had the victim(s) been able to walk, bike or take transit to their destination?  What if we had truly complete neighborhoods where people could choose to walk to to their jobs, bars, stores and parks?  Could we reduce the number of deaths on our roads?  The single most deadly thing we do every day is get behind the wheel of our cars.  Think about it... and be careful out there.