Brittany Glover arrived in Atlanta in late summer 2022 to start a new life.
The 33-year-old had her own vegan food business and was a new Spirit Airlines flight attendant who dreamed of traveling the world with her mother, Valerie Handy-Carey.
But not long after she moved to the city, in the early morning hours Sept. 19 while leaving a music event on the westside of Atlanta, Glover was killed by a hit-and-run driver as she crossed Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway near Finley Avenue.
Atlanta police said at the time that Glover wasn’t in a crosswalk when she attempted to cross the road around 2:30 a.m. but there is no crosswalk in the vicinity.
On Friday ― which would have been her daughter’s 35th birthday ― Handy-Carey stood at the same intersection as cars, buses and long haul trucks rushed past. Many seemingly going well over the 35-mile-per-hour speed limit on the throughway.
She had one message: “we want safety now.”
“It’s raining today,” she said. “As Brittany was crossing the street it wasn’t raining and she didn’t make it. So you have to ask yourself why? Why has there been continued complacency when this is one of the most dangerous highways in the city?”
Handy-Carey traveled from Ohio after her daughter’s death to advocate for greater pedestrian safety measures, like installing a stop light or lowering the speed limit on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway.
Now, she is leading an effort to rename Finley Avenue Northwest to Brittany Glover Drive Northwest. Legislation that would make the change has been slowly making its way through Atlanta City Council and is expected to pass in the coming weeks.
Georgia has consistently ranked in the top ten states that are deadliest for pedestrians — particularly in minority communities with less walkable infrastructure.
Pedestrian deaths in the city jumped 23% from 2021 to 2022, according to a report from PropelATL — a pedestrian safety nonprofit. Thirty-eight pedestrians were killed within city limits in 2022 compared to 31 the previous year.
“I’m saying to Atlanta, to the constituents of the state of Georgia: make it a priority — because it is,” Handy-Carey said Friday. “Today it’s me, tomorrow it could be you and your family.”
Around noon, surrounded by a group of mothers who lost their children suddenly to other issues like police brutality, Handy-Carey released into the air a cluster of green, yellow and black balloons that drifted over the bustling traffic as cars cruised by.
“Fly, Brittany,” she said. “Fly.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Westside residents want change
Glover’s death in 2022 sparked a broader conversation about pedestrian safety in neighborhoods in Atlanta where popular concert and event venues bring visitors at all hours of the day.
The conversation rekindled after the street renaming bill was introduced in early February by Former City Council member Keisha Sean Waites.
Keyana Lawson, a representative for the residents who live in the new Ten29 West townhomes at the same intersection where Glover was killed, said they want elected officials to do more in the area to prevent pedestrian fatalities.
Lawson told council members at a committee meeting last month that visitors to the popular event venue across the street often park in the condo community to avoid paid parking.
“It is a huge safety issue,” she said. “I’ve watched plenty of people almost get hit on a weekly basis trying to run across the highway at the wee hours of the morning.”
Others testified that the problem goes back decades. Dalphine Robinson, a good friend of Glover’s family, told council members that the communities surrounding Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway are no stranger to tragedy.
“I grew up in that neighborhood,” Robinson said last month. “As a little girl, I lost a friend on that street when it was Bankhead Highway to a hit-and-run. So this has been going on for a very long time, and it’s time for a change.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Handy-Carey wasn’t the only family member mourning the death of a loved one on Friday. Glover’s aunt, Kimberly Handy-Jones, remembered her son, Cordale Handy, who was shot and killed by police in Minnesota in 2017.
“You just feel so robbed,” Handy-Jones said of her son and niece’s deaths. “Knowing that your child is never gonna be able to walk through the door and you’ll never have a conversation. It’s just a hollowing of your heart.”
Patricia Scott, too, shared the story of her son, Raemawn Leavelle Scott — a poet — who she said died in the Cobb County Jail.
And Kathy Scott-Lykes lost her son Jarvis Lykes — a father of four — who was shot and killed during an altercation with Georgia State Police in Columbus Georgia in 2017.
“We will always stand up for all of our lost loved ones,” Scott-Lykes said. “Pain brought us together, but it is the love that keeps us together.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
About the Author
