New Year's Holiday Period Ends With 21 Road Fatalities

The New Year's holiday travel period ended at midnight Sunday with 21 traffic deaths reported to the Georgia State Patrol over the 102-hour period. The traffic deaths were recorded in 18 fatal crashes that occurred between 6 p.m. New Year's Eve and midnight Sunday.

Traffic estimates for the holiday period from the Georgia State Patrol and the Crash Reporting Unit at the Georgia Department of Transportation had been for 3,008 traffic crashes, 1,350 injuries, and 21 traffic fatalities. During the 2007-08 New Year’s holiday travel period, which was also 102 hours long, there were 3,108 traffic crashes, 1,250 injuries, and 22 traffic deaths recorded.

Wet roads for the third consecutive holiday period contributed to a higher than normal number of crashes, especially between noon and midnight Friday. During that 12-hour period, 955 traffic crashes and 240 injuries were reported.

Over the holiday period, fatal crashes were reported by the Putnam County Sheriff's Department, Atlanta Police, DeKalb County Police (2), Gwinnett County Police (2), Savannah-Chatham Police, Richmond County S/O, and the Georgia State Patrol posts in Americus, Dalton, Dublin (2), Lafayette (2), Lagrange, Newnan, Reidsville, and Sylvania. Three people were killed in a fatal crash Wednesday night in Screven County and two people were killed Sunday night in Coweta County.

The highest number of traffic deaths recorded over a New Year’s holiday travel period occurred in 1981 and 1987 when 23 fatalities occurred and the lowest was three in 1958.