Fifteen people were killed in wrecks across Georgia over the 78-hour Memorial Day holiday period that ended at midnight Monday, according to the Georgia State Patrol.
GSP troopers investigated eight of the fatalities, while seven were investigated by local police and sheriff’s offices.
The statewide fatality count was two fewer than in 2014, when 17 people died in Memorial Day weekend crashes.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources reported two fatalities on the state lakes through 10 p.m. Monday, one of them in metro Atlanta.
A 61-year-old Gwinnett County man apparently fell out of his boat in a treacherous Forsyth County section of the Chattahoochee River and drowned Saturday.
The DNR’s Calhoun law enforcement region also reported a possible drowning over the weekend.
DNR spokesman Mark McKinnon said a man was found about 7:30 p.m. Saturday in “very shallow water” in a private pond in Catoosa County in northwest Georgia.
“We are treating it as a drowning at this time until the coroner can perform an autopsy,” McKinnon told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution early Tuesday. “It is possible that the man ended up in the water due to a medical condition.”
Statewide, a total of nine people were injured in 13 boating incidents.
DNR rangers cited 30 boaters across the state with boating under the influence between Saturday and Monday.
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