Daily checks of police scanners, traffic cameras reveal work zone dangers
As we scour the maps and cameras looking for unusual delays as part of our morning traffic coverage on 11Alive, Rachel Cox-Rosen and I will happen upon an aberration on I-20 eastbound near Six Flags.
I will call Cobb 911 dispatch, and she will start opening cameras. Lo and behold, there will be what we have started to call “our daily crash” there.
It is often on the Georgia Department of Transportation’s camera No. 317, just west of the Six Flags/Riverside exits.
As the gears turn and major road projects wrap up, new ones begin. There is no even par on the sprawling golf course that is metro Atlanta’s road system. And with all these lane closures, barrels and delays comes another inevitability: a higher likelihood of crashes.
In the last few months, crews have ramped up work along Ga. 400 between I-285 and Alpharetta and on I-20 between Six Flags and I-285. And, likewise, we have tracked more crashes on those freeways.
Ga. 400 has seen major changes after construction began to build toll express lanes in each direction between I-285 and Cumming. Workers have taken down dozens of trees and have been moving tons of dirt on both sides of the freeway. But this brings some changes to how the lanes look and the width of the shoulders, particularly in Roswell.
GDOT does not have data showing an increase in crashes in the Ga. 400 work zone and was not able to get I-20 findings to us by press time. The state also does not handle every single freeway crash, so its count could be lower than what has occurred. And, state and federal crash data sometimes takes months to fully update.
But I have seen the increase. I check cameras, make phone calls and listen to the police scanners to hear new crashes dispatched. The numbers vary, but I have seen two to three more crashes per week in each of those work zones. And that is just during my morning drive shift.
Likewise, I have noticed a sizable decrease in wrecks on I-20 in DeKalb County, where the three-year project to redo the east interchange with I-20 and I-285 just finished.
I-20 has begun to morph on the west side of town, as GDOT builds extra distributor lanes both eastbound and westbound that will add capacity between Six Flags and I-285. This is all part of the I-285/I-20 West Interchange project — a reprofiling of the complex system of ramps in Fulton County. And since lane shifts and shoulder-narrowings have come into place on that stretch of I-20, we are finding crashes there more often. ’
We also have seen an uptick in police being dispatched to wrecks on Ga. 400 southbound, particularly near the busy Holcomb Bridge Road (Exit 7) interchange. Traffic has gotten much slower in that spot since roadwork has ramped up and there’s simply less margin for driver error. Lanes are restriped and narrower, and some parts of the shoulders are closed.
This is not random. When conditions change, whether in a construction zone or because of weather, drivers are more likely to react poorly.
GDOT spokesperson Natalie Dale described work zone safety as “paramount” in an email statement to me.
“Traffic control measures are in place throughout these corridors, including advance warning signs, reduced-speed notifications, lane-shift signage, pavement markings, and other safety measures designed to guide motorists safely through the work area,” she said.
Then she drilled in to the main point.
“While construction activities can create changing traffic conditions, motorists play a critical role in work zone safety. GDOT encourages all drivers to travel responsibly by remaining alert, obeying posted speed limits, maintaining safe following distances, staying off mobile devices, and exercising additional caution when traveling through work zones.”
Drivers are responsible for being alert and aware of changes, and being able to react when others make mistakes or slow down. Motorists often compress their margin for error by speeding, something automobile marketing still encourages, despite the fact that numerous stats show that speed kills.
What I have shared here is anecdotal, but data shows the scope of the problem. The National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse has federal data from crash reports that shows work zone crash fatalities generally rose from 2015 to 2024. And while this can highlight the danger to construction workers, they found the large majority of deaths were to motorists involved in the wrecks.
This data focuses more on fatal crashes, which rightfully deserve more attention. But everyday fender benders also cause plenty of headaches. When a work zone is already narrow, twisty and lacks a shoulder, blocking one of the lanes can make for even worse delays than on a cleaner piece of road.
Whether you trust the anecdotes of a traffic reporter who has seen a few things over 22 years or a decade of federal data — or both — driving in construction zones is inherently more dangerous. Drivers need to slow down and pay even more attention because this increase in wrecks is not random.
And that is why I never call crashes “accidents.”
Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive) with Rachel Cox-Rosen. Their reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6-9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com. Subscribe to the weekly “Gridlock Guy” newsletter for the column here.