A tree fell on his truck. The tale is a lesson for all Atlanta drivers.

Weekend thunderboomers and the root-weakening effect of a long-term drought were the likely culprits for downed trees in the city of Atlanta on Sunday and Monday. And for one Atlanta driver, one of those falling trees caused a harrowing experience.

Marquez Peete was driving his white Ford pickup truck down Macon Drive in southeast Atlanta last Sunday afternoon, helping his brother move some items.

“I saw (the tree) moving a little more than usual and then I heard the crackling,” Peete told me the next day. “And before I knew it, I just swerved off to the left to try to avoid it.”

That move saved his life, he believes.

The large pine was up a hill and in a yard that overlooked Macon Drive, south of Lakewood Avenue, in this city in the forest. The impact ruptured his truck’s windshield, covering Peete in glass and injuring his eye, arms and legs. A storage attachment on the truck’s ceiling came loose and left a big shiner under his right eye.

Peete said he felt lucky “it didn’t do worse.”

So much of the tree covered the white truck that when 11Alive photojournalist Stephen Boissy and I arrived around 5:30 a.m. Monday, we could see only a fraction of the damage. In fact, we did not get a full look at what happened until a city subcontractor came to remove the tree about 16 hours after it fell. More on that later.

We noticed after daybreak that a large limb had gone straight into the passenger side. Peete cringes at what could have been: “It, like, literally impaled the seat. So again, it just had me thinking (that) if I didn’t veer off to the side or if my brother was in the car with me or anyone, what could have truly, like, went down?”

Peete got treatment for injuries at the scene and said he will have follow-up doctor visits. He left his truck, as the tree was too big for Atlanta Fire Rescue Department to safely cut it.

This is where a string of issues both with the city and drivers began.

Atlanta fire Capt. Andrew Anderson explained to me that fire crews not only were unable to move the tree, but that the city dealt with various downed trees that weekend. Storms rumbled through the night of Saturday, Sept. 19, and the cleanup continued into Monday.

Anderson said certain tree calls take priority, especially those that knock out power to homes (the one on Macon Drive did not) or keep people from accessing medical care. Trees on houses, of which there was one on Willow Trail that Monday morning, also move to the front of the line.

The city’s forestry department handles the trees that fire crews cannot, and they have only so many contractors.

So, Atlanta fire crews put up caution tape and left the tree and Peete’s truck. Some time later, a silver Toyota Corolla slammed into the pickup truck’s rear; the Toyota was left at the growing mess, too.

Peete said he did not know his truck had been hit by a car until his family showed him pictures from our 11Alive reports and those of other news stations at the scene.

A neighbor told me there had been at least three additional crashes after the tree fell, including one where a car swerved to avoid the blockage, ran over a fence and knocked another tree down into a yard.

I heard a Volkswagen screech its tires and smack the front of Peete’s truck while I stood on the other side of it. The driver had no damage or injuries.

The Atlanta Police Department was not directing traffic. There were no barricades on Macon Drive. And the Atlanta Department of Transportation sent out no text alerts.

There are reasons, not excuses, for all of this: staffing, communication and ownership of the issue. The tree that blocked Macon Drive belonged to no one and everyone all at the same time.

The Transportation Department told me they were unaware of it, as they normally manage planned lane closures. APD didn’t respond to my queries; an officer was at the scene when I arrived but soon left.

And neither Atlanta Public Schools nor Atlanta fire had answers for why buses and a firetruck were not told the road was blocked. We watched those city vehicles and numerous civilian drivers come down Macon Drive and then have to make U-turns on the two-lane road.

Proper detour signs back at Polar Rock Road and Lang Drive on either side of the closure would have allowed drivers a safer and more efficient workaround.

But motorists also messed up on this one, crashing into or around the tree. One driver, the tree crew told us, ran over the cones while the crew removed the pine. And many commuters were going too fast in the area and were rude to one another, honking as they had to make those Austin Powers-like turns to leave.