C. T. Martin to Examine Public Safety on Deadly Stretch of I-285 Near MLK

Atlanta City Councilman C.T. Martin said he will look into the safety of a deadly stretch of I-285 as it passes through the Cascade area.

A of a crash on I-285 in Cascade, this one on April 24 near the intersection with Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

said recently that he will check into the state’s compliance with its agreement to patrol highways that pass through Atlanta. Martin said former Gov. Sonny Perdue agreed for the Georgia State Patrol to enforce speed limits and other driving laws on Atlanta’s highways.

“I will look into it,” Martin said. “[Former Councilwoman] Mary Norwood and I got an agreement from Gov. Perdue to assign state troopers to patrol 285 around Atlanta because our police had to come off handling 911 calls to handle 285 and I-20.

“I would be concerned to see if the patrols are not being maintained,” Martin said.

Chances are that the patrols are not being maintained, at least not at their pre-recession levels. The state has reduced funding for the state patrol, and the entire Department of Public Safety, in order to balance the state’s budget.

Troopers have been asked to drive less to reduce their fuel bill. The impact of the reduced fuel budget, coupled with previous furlough days for officers, was evident in a 25 percent decrease in the number of speeding tickets issued statewide from 2007 to 2010, according to an analysis in January by Morris News Service.

The latest crash victim on I-285 in the Cascade area is Danyal Holley, 21, of Woodstock. Atlanta police said Holley died after her Nissan Sentra was hit by a big-rig truck as both vehicles were traveling south on I-285, near Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

The truck changed lanes and hit Holley’s car, knocking it out of control, police said. Holley’s car careened into the right guard rail, crossed back over I-285 and was hit by another truck, which flipped Holley’s car, police said.

This stretch of I-285 is one of the busiest roads in the state. Its ratio of tractor-trailer trucks to cars is among the highest in Georgia, according to records maintained by the state Department of Transportation.

Longtime Cascade resident said I-285 in this area is the kind of place that makes her squeeze her steering wheel when she drives through.

“The engineers, I don’t know what they were thinking,” White said. “Structurally, I don’t know what they can do to rectify it at this point.”

White said she remembers the difficulty in navigating the area before former state Rep. Henrietta Canty convinced the state to build an interchange at I-285 and MLK Drive. Now, however, it seems that so many big roads come together in such a small area that the highway feels like a beehive.

In the span of about 1.5 miles, I-285 South intersects with , then I-20, and then MLK Drive. Add in the phenomenon of the left-hand exit from I-285 South to I-20 East, and it’s no wonder White has to grip her wheel so tightly.

And that’s not to mention erratic driver behavior.

“People are just not courteous and they will not let you over,” White said. “It is just too fast, too fast.”

, a GDOT spokesman, said highways are designed in ways that attempt to regulate traffic and reduce the potential for collisions. But painted lines don’t always work.

“We can put all the pavement markings out there you can imagine, but if drivers choose not to behave, that’s an enforcement issue,” McKinnon said. “We just can’t control how someone is going to behave.”

Even the ramps at I-285 and MLK Drive aren’t safe.

GDOT reports there was, on average, more than one wreck a week in the area, from 2008 through 2010. A total of 188 collisions were recorded over that time, including one fatality.

Gov. Nathan Deal sought to keep the state patrol whole this year.

Deal used nearly $8.9 million of Georgia tax dollars to compensate for federal stimulus funds that were not available for the 2012 budget. That amount of federal money had helped pay for the state patrol’s uniform division in the 2011 budget year that ends June 30.

Even with the infusion of state dollars, the Department of Public Safety still suffered a loss of about 1.8 percent of its budget, under the governor’s plan to spend $162.4 million on public safety, down from $165.1 million in the 2011 fiscal year that ends June 30.

The state doesn’t count vehicles along every segment of highway. But here are the counts closest to the intersection of MLK and I-285, and some from other well-known busy highways: 

Location

No. of vehicles per day

Weekday truck percent

I-285 between I-20 and Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway

154,680

15.7

I-285 between I-85 and Washington Road

132,830

18.0

I-75 at Chattahoochee River

172,020

4.2

Downtown Connector at Grady Curve

294,110

5.3

I-85 at North Druid Hills

210,330

4.1

I-75 between 19/41 and Farmers Market exit

178,470

9.2

I-75 between Windy Hill and Delk roads

281,480

10.4

Source: GDOT