The Memorial Day holiday weekend was particularly deadly on Georgia roads, with far more fatalities than a year ago, but local lakes have been safer this year than last year, according to numbers provided by state agencies.
Seventeen people died in traffic wrecks during the holiday counting period that began at 6 p.m. Friday and ended at midnight Monday, according to the Georgia Department of Public Safety. Last year, the Georgia State Patrol investigated six traffic deaths during the holiday period. State troopers investigated nine fatal wrecks, with the remaining handled by local police departments.
In metro Atlanta, fatal wrecks have taken place in Gwinnett, Cobb, Coweta and Carroll counties, according to the state DPS.
The string of deadly wrecks began early Saturday when state troopers attempted to stop a 2011 Honda Civic on Thompson Mill Road in the Buford area, GSP spokeswoman Tracey Watson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Investigators believe the driver was fleeing from a road check that was being conducted by troopers on Ga. 347 at McEver Road in Hall County, Watson said.
“The driver was traveling too fast for conditions, lost control while negotiating a curve, and ran off of the south edge of the roadway,” Watson said in an emailed statement. “The vehicle went down an embankment, overturned, and struck a tree.”
The driver, Brittany Therese Tucker, 27, of Anderson, S.C., died in the crash, and her passenger, Douglas Wayne Kight, 26, of Sugar Hill, was transported to Gwinnett Medical Center for treatment of undisclosed injuries. Neither one was wearing a seat belt and both were ejected from the vehicle at the time of the crash, around 12:10 a.m., Watson said.
In Gwinnett County, a Sunday afternoon wreck involving seven vehicles killed 39-year-old Pamela Leake, of Lawrenceville. Later Sunday, one girl was killed and two others injured while walking on a sidewalk along Barrett Lakes Boulevard, near Kennesaw, according to Cobb County police.
On Saturday, a Peachtree City man died at the scene of a two-vehicle wreck in Coweta County just before 10 p.m., according to police. A second driver was also injured, according to the GSP. Saturday afternoon, Christopher Wayne Upton, 24, of Temple, died in a single-vehicle crash after leaving the road and hitting a tree, a GSP spokeswoman said.
Two people drowned in Georgia waters on Saturday, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said.
Late Saturday night, an 18-year-old who had graduated high school hours earlier drowned in Lake Allatoona while playing on a dock with friends.
Chance Werner, of Euharlee, was tied to a shopping cart that was then pushed into the lake, pulling him into water about 30 feet deep, according to Melissa Cummings, DNR spokeswoman.
“This is a tragedy for this young man just as he was starting the next stage in his life,” Cummings told The AJC. “We don’t want people playing games with water like this. It’s an accident waiting to happen — kids playing with ropes and heavy objects.”
Around 3 a.m. Saturday, a man’s body was pulled from the Atlantic Ocean by Tybee Island police, the DNR said. No additional details were released regarding how William Brown died.
Two people drowned over the holiday weekend last year.
As of late Monday, state rangers had cited 32 people, including 10 on Lake Lanier, for boating under the influence on Georgia waters. In 2013, 57 citations were issued for BUI during Memorial Day weekend, according to DNR numbers. Last year, rangers investigated 13 incidents involving boats compared with nine incidents so far this year.
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