A fatal pedestrian accident early Monday once again shut down all lanes of a major metro Atlanta interstate, but unlike a similar January incident in Sandy Springs that blocked I-285 for hours, authorities were able to reopen several northbound lanes of the Downtown Connector in less than half an hour.
Monday’s fatal accident happened just before 6 a.m. when a woman was hit on I-75/85 northbound near 10th Street.
Authorities initially blocked all northbound lanes of the Connector, but reopened three of the seven northbound lanes within 30 minutes, and the remaining lanes were open by 8 a.m.
That wasn’t the case at about the same time of the morning Jan. 22, when 53-year-old Gayla Joyce Walker of Dunwoody was hit by multiple vehicles on I-285 westbound near Roswell Road in Sandy Springs.
All westbound lanes of I-285 were closed for nearly three hours, causing a major traffic jam that crippled I-285 for the entire morning commute.
A Sandy Springs police spokesman said the extended closure was necessary because numerous vehicles hit Walker, scattering body parts across several lanes of the interstate.
Police also were forced to shut down the ramps from Ga. 400 northbound and southbound to I-285 westbound, severely impacting traffic on that major highway as well.
In Monday’s incident, Atlanta police Sgt. Greg Lyon said German Castellon told investigators he was driving his 1997 GMC minivan northbound in the right travel lane of I-75/85 at about 50 mph when he “heard a crash.”
“He pulled to the side of the road and discovered that he had struck the victim,” Lyon told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Lyon said no charges are anticipated, as “evidence on the scene indicated that the victim was in the travel lane when she was struck.”
Authorities were withholding the woman’s name until relatives could be notified, an investigator with the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office said.
Even though the Downtown Connector was partially reopened within minutes after Monday’s incident, northbound traffic quickly backed up several miles to Langford Parkway.
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