Death toll mounts in holiday weekend crashes

Seventeen people were killed in Georgia traffic accidents from 6 p.m. Thursday through 6 p.m. Sunday, including seven in metro Atlanta.

The Georgia Department of Public Safety had predicted 22 fatalities for the holiday weekend, so with six hours remaining the news was better than anticipated.

However, there had been 2,308 crashes, far more than the 1,874 projected. Those accidents resulted in 640 injuries.

Last year, 22 people died and 910 were injured in traffic accidents over the July 4th weekend.