Deadly holiday weekend on Georgia roads

By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Eleven people have died on Georgia roads during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, according to the state department of public safety.

That number includes traffic fatalities beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday through midnight Sunday. Four deaths were reported on metro Atlanta roads.

Two men were killed Saturday night when they slammed into a tree in Cherokee County, Lt. Jay Baker with the Cherokee sheriff's office said. Neither victim was wearing a seatbelt, Baker said.

Friday night, an 82-year-old woman was struck by a vehicle will leaving a high school football game in Atlanta. Ruby Young later died at Grady Memorial Hospital.

By late Sunday night, the state patrol reported 520 wrecks resulting in 231 injuries. Numbers from other police agencies were not yet available.

During the same holiday period in 2009, 13 people were killed and 888 people injured in 2,348 crashes, the Georgia DOT reported. None of the fatal wrecks in 2009 involved drugs or alcohol, but four victims were not wearing seatbelts, GDOT said.

GSP spokesman Gordy Wright said the figures for 2009 include reports from other law enforcement agencies in Georgia. This year those agencies -- almost 500 police and sheriff's departments -- will send their accident reports to GDOT, Wright said.

The GSP reported its troopers worked 411 crashes during the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday weekend. In those crashes, a total of 246 people were injured, Wright said.

The highest number of traffic deaths ever recorded for the Thanksgiving holiday period was 43 in 1969 and the lowest was four in 1949.

Staff writer Kristi E. Swartz contributed to this article.