Janae Rice was in Atlanta planning to surprise her brother for his birthday this past Memorial Day weekend.
But the would-be celebration turned tragic when the 32-year-old was stuck and killed by a stolen red Chevrolet Malibu, Atlanta police said.
Rice became one of 18 people, including 11 in the metro Atlanta area, killed in crashes over the Memorial Day weekend, the Georgia State Patrol said Tuesday. This is up from the 12 fatalities reported last year. Only three of those were in the metro Atlanta area.
This year’s fatalities occurred in 11 Georgia counties, including Cobb County, where volunteer firefighter Mark E. Strow was struck and killed trying to assist someone in a disabled car.
In Gwinnett County, a 64-year-old pedestrian was stuck by two cars and killed, officials said. About an hour south in Clayton County, another person died in a single car crash “believed to have been caused by a medical emergency,” police Sgt. Ashanti Marbury said.
GSP officials also investigated fatalities in: Baldwin, Bibb, Dougherty, Henry, Monroe, Muscogee and Stephens counties.
Georgia motor vehicle deaths have increased in the past two years, according to a recent study by the National Safety Council. Last year, 1,540 people died in car accidents, which is an increase of 34 percent from 2014, when 1,145 people died in accidents.
Over the holiday weekend, GSP troopers investigated 414 traffic crashes that resulted in 204 injuries. Officials also arrested 262 people for DUI.
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