Articles Tagged with Clayton county

Published on:

A third teenager has succumbed to his injuries after a deadly pedestrian accident in Clayton County.Two other teenage pedestrians were also killed in the car accident last Thursday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has confirmed the death of the third teenager, a seventeen-year-old boy.The boy had suffered a serious brain injury in the accident.The boy and his two friends, aged sixteen and seventeen years old, were walking along GA 158, when they were struck by a car being driven by forty-eight-year-old Priscilla Diane Johnson.The impact left the boys with serious injuries.One of them died at the scene of the accident, while the other was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital, and succumbed to his injuries there.The third victim died on Saturday morning.

According to police, Johnson had been talking on a cell phone at the time of the accident.She had also taken antidepressant medications just before the accident.She now faces a number of charges, including vehicular homicide, driving under the influence, and hit and run.Police also believe that she was driving under a suspended license.Additionally, she faces charges of reckless driving as well charges related to cell phone use while driving and lack of insurance. Personal injury attorneys have repeatedly warned about the dangers of distracted driving as well as driving under the influence of medications. Unfortunately, these tragedies will continue to occur until we toughen our laws in these areas.

According to one of her friends, at the time of the accident, she was on the cell phone having a quarrel with her husband.The friend has confirmed that she had taken antidepressants before she started driving, and had been impaired at the time of the accident.

Published on:

Lack of funding is the reason why Clayton County buses are bursting not only with people, but with the potential for a serious accident. According to MARTA, which operates 22 buses through C-TRAN, Clayton County’s public transport system, more buses are desperately needed to avoid the overcrowding problem on local buses. The problem is huge, and is getting to the point where a bus is forced to routinely take close to 20 more passengers than it can handle.

MARTA general manager Beverly Scott is concerned enough about the problem to ask for additional funding to address this concern. Apart from at least 6 new buses that will be needed to counter the overcrowding problem, new drivers to operate these as well as additional routes will have to be planned for. On February 17th at a hearing that included county residents, the Clayton County Commission received an earful of complaints about the dangers they faced traveling on County buses. Besides the road safety issues involved, residents complained that they were frequent fights breaking out on the buses as passengers jostled for space.

MARTA is expecting more than $60 million in federal stimulus money. However, those expecting the money to be used to expand essential bus services are likely to be disappointed. MARTA expects money to be used for current facilities, including repairs and other projects.

Contact Information