An alleged wrong-way driver crashed into another vehicle, killing its driver and leaving I-20 West in DeKalb County closed for hours Wednesday morning, according to police.
DeKalb police were called to the two-vehicle crash near Wesley Chapel Road around 3:15 a.m. and found that a vehicle was traveling east in the westbound lanes when it crashed into another vehicle head-on. Both drivers were rushed to a hospital, but the driver of the second vehicle did not survive. Their name was not released.
Police said charges are pending against the first driver, who also was not publicly identified.
Metro Atlanta has seen a steady increase in wrong-way wrecks since 2013, according to Georgia Department of Transportation data. In 2013, there were just six head-on crashes. That number doubled the following year and grew to 18 in 2015. The number fell to 13 in 2018, but single digits have not been seen again.
In all, from 2013 to 2022, there were 171 wrong-way crashes just in the metro area, most of which took place on interstates and freeways. Each time, those thoroughfares have to be shut down for the investigation, which can disrupt traffic for hours, especially if there has been a death.
In Wednesday’s crash, investigators closed the interstate for three hours as they collected evidence and recorded the scene. But traffic was not diverted by police, which caused major backups coming into the city from Stonecrest and Lithonia at the start of the morning commute, the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center reported. At the height of the shutdown, backups stretched back for seven miles to Klondike Road in Stonecrest.
Lanes started reopening around 6 a.m., but traffic was still moving slower than usual for another hour.
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