A 36-year-old woman who was walking on Interstate 75 near Northside Drive NW was struck and killed early Sunday morning. According to a report from Fox 5, the Atlanta Police Department responded to the scene at around 1:43 AM, where they discovered that the woman had been struck by two vehicles in the northbound lanes. She was not alert or breathing and was pronounced dead by medical workers at the scene.
The report notes that it is unclear why the woman was walking on the interstate. However, because interstate highways are considered “access-controlled roads,” it is illegal for pedestrians and slow-moving vehicles such as bicycles to travel on them. This is an important rule, as vehicles traveling on interstates are often traveling at high speeds, there are no sidewalks available for pedestrians to safely navigate the roadway, and often there are few shoulders of the roadway that are sufficient to keep pedestrians off the roadway.
The Georgia Department of Highway Safety reports that there are more than 200 pedestrian accidents a year on state roadways, and 58 percent of these accidents occur in the Atlanta region. Four out of five pedestrian fatalities and more than half of all pedestrian injuries occur on roadways where the speed limit is at least 40 miles per hour. Emergency room visits and hospitalization of pedestrians in Georgia cost more than $172 million a year.
If your loved one was injured or killed due to a pedestrian accident that was caused by a negligent driver, you can seek compensation for the expenses and impacts of the accident through Georgia’s personal injury or wrongful death claims process. An experienced lawyer from Cambre & Associates can tell you about this process and may even be able to provide services to assist you with your claim. Contact us for a free case evaluation.