A driver of a stolen vehicle who crashed as he tried to flee from police down Peachtree Road in Buckhead succumbed to his injuries, becoming the third traffic fatality in Atlanta Wednesday, police said.
The incident began at about 6:45 a.m. when an Atlanta police officer spotted a stolen vehicle on Peachtree at Paces Ferry Road, police spokeswoman Officer Kim Y. Jones said. The officer stopped the vehicle, but when the officer exited a patrol car, the vehicle fled.
"There was a short pursuit," Jones said. "At Peachtree Road and Peachtree Battle, the stolen vehicle struck another vehicle, and a third vehicle was also struck."
The vehicle overturned with its driver trapped inside. Alanta Fire Rescue extricated the motorist and took him in critical condition to Grady, where he underwent surgery but died as a result of his injuries at 10:25 a.m. The driver's name has not yet been released.
Two other people were also injured in the crash.
Earl Johnson said his mother-in-law was one of those other motorists. He said she “just paid off the car. Hopefully, everything will be fine.”
Johnson said his mother-in-law was taken to Grady, but is “going to be all right.”
In the second traffic fatality of Wednesday morning, a pedestrian was struck and killed shortly before 5 a.m. on I-285 southbound south of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in southwest Atlanta.
Jones said the pedestrian, a man whose identity had not been determined, was attempting to cross the interstate when he was struck. He was wearing dark clothing, and there was minimal lighting, Jones said.
The driver of the car that struck the pedestrian told investigators that the man "just walked out into traffic and he didn't have time to stop," Jones said.
She said charges are not expected to be filed.
The accident briefly blocked all southbound lanes of the interstate. All lanes were reopened about 6:45 a.m.
Authorities were also investigating a fatal crash Wednesday morning on the Downtown Connector. That wreck happened just before 6:30 a.m. on the ramp from I-75/85 southbound to Langford Parkway.
Georgia State Patrol spokesman Gordy Wright said Matthew Kelley was killed when the Santa Fe he was driving ran off the roadway, striking a guardrail, an embankment and a concrete wall.
Kelley, 48, of Hapeville, was the only person in the vehicle.
-- Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this article.
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