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News Articles: Pedestrian Fatalities

Valerie Handy-Carey stands with family members and city leaders on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway on March 19, 2023, in Atlanta. Several months earlier, her daughter, Brittany Glover, was hit by a car and died while trying to cross the intersection. With pedestrian deaths in the U.S. at their highest in four decades, citizens across the nation are urging lawmakers to break from transportation spending focused on car culture. Atlanta, she said, needs to do more to protect pedestrians and cyclists.

Push for transit, walkable communities growing across U.S.

With pedestrian deaths in the U.S. at their highest point in four decades, advocates and urban residents across the nation are urging city councils and state lawmakers to break from transportation spending focused on road improvements and car culture. From Salt Lake City to Atlanta to Charlotte, N.C., frustrated residents are pushing for increased funding for public transportation and improvements that make it safer to travel by bike or on foot.

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Laura Corley | The Macon Newsroom Imogene Patterson peers through the blinds behind the check-in desk at Economy Hotel on Pio Nono. She said she sometimes holds her breath watching some of the hotel guests trying to cross the five lanes of Pio Nono Avenue to get to the Circle K convenience store.

‘I hate to look.’ Deadly stretch of Macon road lacks crosswalk, stoplight as pedestrians keep dying

Five people have been hit by cars and killed in the past six years on a 500-feet stretch of Pio Nono between Glendale Avenue and Dewey Streets, just south of the exit and entrance ramps for Interstate 75.

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Henry Young III, 64, knows well how deadly Pio Nono Avenue can be for people on foot. He says lowering the speed limit could help because, “they treat this road here just like a racetrack.”

Macon’s deadliest streets: Two roommates die months apart crossing same busy road

When Henry Young III heard his girlfriend, Audrey Michelle Mack, had been hit by a car, he ran down Pio Nono Avenue to check on her. For Young, the same gut-punching heartbreak would happen twice in a span of less than eight months. 

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Laura Corley | The Macon Newsroom A Bibb County sheriff deputy’s car with blue lights activated near a pedestrian crosswalk on Jeffersonville Road in Macon.

Macon’s roads are becoming deadlier for pedestrians, but few hit-and-runs are solved

The number of hit-and-run pedestrian fatalities increased from three in 2021 to seven in 2022. Bibb County Sheriff’s Traffic Fatality Investigator Shannon Moseley said in January 2023 only one of those had been solved — the sheriff’s office had a sole traffic fatality investigator to work all deadly wrecks here since December 2021.

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Person crossing intersection

Road safety concerns, frustrations prompt Macon-Bibb summit with GDOT

Macon Mayor Lester Miller leads local delegation to meet with state transportation officials over pedestrian safety issues.

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Two people on foot, one with a walker, negotiate the dirt path on Pio Nono Avenue in Macon after it passes under Interstate 75. The spot is one of the most deadly for pedestrians in Macon with five people killed within about a quarter mile of it since 2006.

Free training in Macon teaches how to identify and document pedestrian safety hazards

The Macon-Bibb County Pedestrian Safety Review Board is set to offer a public training session to teach locals how to identify safety concerns in their own neighborhoods through group walking audits.

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Mika Shills crosses Spring Street in Macon with the red light going her way by about 20 yards from the crosswalk a few hours after another pedestrian was hit and killed near the same spot. Shills is careful about crossing Macon roadways on foot but says nowhere is really safe to do it. "They'll speed up and try to hit you out here," she said.

Why fixing Georgia's deadliest roads for pedestrians remains out of reach

Macon is one of the most dangerous cities for pedestrians in a nation where walking on the roadway is becoming more deadly every year. So what does it take to make the roads safer? The first step might be getting the ear of the people who own the roads. 

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Street crossing device for pedestrians

Walking safety audits planned in Bibb County neighborhoods

The upcoming audits have not been scheduled yet but will help identify improvements needed for safe foot traffic. 

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Collisions involving cars, pedestrians and bicycles are on the rise across the U.S., including in Georgia.

Atlanta Infrastructure, Rapid Growth Jeopardize Bicyclist, Pedestrian Safety

Atlanta police are cracking down on scooters after at least one death and hundreds of injuries. It's illegal to ride them on sidewalks or to violate...

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Esther Muhammad of Macon wears a t-shirt featuring an image of her son Daniel, who was killed in 2013 after being hit by a car. The police determined that his death was a suicide, but his mom doesn't believe it.

Macon-Bibb One Of The Worst Georgia Counties For Pedestrian Deaths

Macon-Bibb County officials meet later this month to discuss why the rate of pedestrian fatalities is so high in the city. It’s either the most deadly...

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On Second Thought For August 2, 2016

Macon-Bibb Country officials meet this month to discuss why there are so many pedestrian fatalities in the area. The Georgia Department of Public Health...

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