Ashley Drumm said witnesses thought she was dead after a dark SUV plowed across four lanes of traffic and crashed into her in the middle of a crosswalk at Peachtree and 10th streets.
Drumm was attempting to cross 10th on the night of March 5 when a vehicle made an illegal turn from the far right lane on Peachtree and hit her with such force that she was carried on the hood of the car and then flung to the curb in front of the Federal Reserve Bank.
The driver sped off while pedestrians flocked to help Drumm as she lay motionless, suffering from a multitude of horrific injuries: facial and skull fractures, two broken legs, seven fractured ribs, a fractured pelvis, a broken knee, ankle and foot.
“It is a miracle that I’m alive,” Drumm told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The suspect remains at large, and Crime Stoppers is asking for the public’s help in finding him. Drumm spent days in Grady Memorial Hospital’s ICU but has begun a long road to recovery.
Pedestrian safety advocates say the accident could have been avoided if drivers in Atlanta were forced to slow down.
What was once Peachtree Street’s strength — fast automobile access to highways — has become a weakness with sometimes deadly consequences.
The good news: Atlanta’s main commercial street, along with others citywide, are being redesigned to thwart speeders. But the projects aren’t progressing quickly, and Atlanta remains the second-deadliest place for pedestrians in the U.S., according to Smart Growth America, a nonprofit that works to make communities more livable.
Peachtree Street, between 10th Street and North Avenue, is a particularly dangerous stretch for people walking and biking, said Rebecca Serna of PropelATL, an organization that works to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians.
“Peachtree is relatively flat and straight, and that leads to speeding and to higher rates of injuries and fatal crashes,” she said. “It could be that drivers are choosing to use Peachtree Street because they know they can speed on it.”
But the speeding is happening citywide, Serna said, citing a recent example of a bystander killed April 15 at Little Five Points during a police chase.
Over the last decade, 50 pedestrians were injured when struck by cars, and five were killed on Peachtree Street and Peachtree Road in Buckhead, according to the city of Atlanta Vision Zero dashboard — a website that tracks encounters between vehicles and walkers.
Atlanta’s freeways were built in the 1950s to facilitate traffic moving to or from interstate highways, without much thought given to pedestrians, said Darin Givens, cofounder of ThreadATL, which lobbies for better city planning.
Over the last three decades, the population of the Atlanta metro region more than doubled, from 2.9 million people to 6.3 million today.
Atlanta itself has experienced 30% population growth over this time period. Many city dwellers now walk or cycle as their primary mode of transportation.
The influx of cars from around metro Atlanta has increased the odds that pedestrians will be struck and killed, Givens said.
‘It’s about geometry’
Givens, of ThreadATL, documents what he calls a pedestrian safety crisis on his Instagram page, @atlurbanist. A lifelong Atlantan, he says the city finds itself at an inflection point.
“Atlanta has the promise of being one of the most walkable cities in the U.S. because of our great weather and the dense growth we’ve experienced over the last few years,” Givens said. “But it’s not happening fast enough.”
He says the city’s public transit and road infrastructure have not caught up, especially in dense neighborhoods like Midtown, or in Southwest neighborhoods that lack sidewalks. People want to walk, but sometimes don’t feel safe doing so.
To make Midtown more pedestrian friendly, Dan Hourigan, director of transportation and sustainability at Midtown Alliance, said his organization has begun planning a redesign of Peachtree Street.
Video footage from Midtown Alliance cameras shows drivers speeding down Peachtree Street and crashing into pedestrians, light poles, park benches, and even the Fox Theatre.
Midtown Alliance says speeding and reckless driving are the primary causes of crashes on Peachtree, and higher speeds are six times more likely to kill pedestrians. It was able to document with a speed detector that 47 cars exceeded 50 miles per hour, and 18 exceeded 70 mph while careening down the Atlanta thoroughfare during a 24-hour period.
Hourigan said slowing traffic between North Avenue and 10th Street would protect private property and pedestrian lives.
“Raised crossings and raised intersections will force people to slow down so they don’t bottom out their cars,” Hourigan said. “A lot of the speeding occurs at night or midday, and we are trying to correct that. Adding chicanes will help people pay attention.”
“Lowering speed limits doesn’t work, nor does more signage: it’s about the design of the street, the geometry of the street. That is what helps people drive at a reasonable speed.”
So called “traffic scrambles” are also helping thwart speeding and make crossing safer for pedestrians. Two along the Beltline at the Krog Street Tunnel and at Memorial Drive stop traffic in all directions at the same time, allowing pedestrians to cross in one phase.
Credit: Michael Scaturro
Credit: Michael Scaturro
In April, the Georgia Legislature passed a “super speeder bill” that will give judges the ability to require reckless drivers to install speed limiters in their cars. The bill awaits Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature. It should improve road safety if it passes, Serna said.
Former Mayor Shirley Franklin said she agrees with the idea that Atlanta drivers must slow down. “What’s more important: being safe or getting to the next red light?”
She says the danger of crossing streets like Cascade Road, near her home, is compounded “by drivers who are in a hurry and pedestrians who are crossing while looking at their phones.”
Drumm had a similar thought during her stay at Grady Memorial Hospital.
“The nurse taking my vitals said: ‘We have four other people in this unit right now who were involved in hit and runs,’” Drumm said. “It’s an epidemic, apparently.”
Another accident on the same day
Just two hours before the car hit Drumm, Sandy Richardson rode a MARTA bus eastward on Greenbriar Parkway. He was on his way home to his girlfriend, but never made it.
After disembarking from a MARTA bus just paces away from his home, the Charleston native was struck on the sidewalk, allegedly by Damanie Shamar Campbell, 22, of Atlanta.
“Sandy was killed instantly,” said Jacqueline Hill, Richardson’s aunt.
Credit: Jackie Hill
Credit: Jackie Hill
Campbell self-surrendered to Fulton County Jail on March 15 to charges of improper lane change, speeding, and second-degree homicide by vehicle, according to the Atlanta Police Department.
Richardson’s bus route passes through Southwest Atlanta’s spaghetti bowl of fast streets: Campbellton Road and Arthur B. Langford Jr. Parkway, among others. All of those roads were designed to feed into I-285. Often, drivers rush to the highway access points. But that speed comes at a price, Givens said.
“Most driver-pedestrian collisions happen closer to those highway access points,” he said. “People drive recklessly, and that’s effecting safety.”
Since 2021, three pedestrians were killed, and two others were seriously injured by cars on Greenbriar Parkway, according to the Vision Zero dashboard.
Problems with police reports
Veronica Watts became an advocate for safer streets after she was hit and nearly killed Feb. 24 at a crossing in Midtown — the intersection of Piedmont and North Avenue.
“Speeding is the number one cause of fatalities when people get hit by cars,” she said.
Citywide in 2022, 38 pedestrians lost their lives, and 548 people were injured by cars while walking or cycling inside Atlanta city limits — a 52% increase compared to 2020, according to PropelATL.
Watts is working with the Georgia Senate to form a study committee to propose concrete policy changes to protect pedestrian lives.
One area of focus will be on the gap between injuries documented in police reports and the actual injuries that hospitals are treating. An analysis of Georgia Department of Transportation crash data and hospital records found that many crash reports are incomplete and underreport serious injuries.
From 2021-22, “emergency department” data showed a 49% increase in motor vehicle traffic-related pedestrian fatalities among people taken to the ER, a report from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety found.
Striking a pedestrian in Georgia is often treated as a minor offense unless injuries documented on police reports are classified as “serious,” Watts said.
As a result of what Watts contends was the officer’s failure to accurately describe her injuries, the driver — who Watts says had nine traffic violations on her record — paid a fine and wasn’t criminally charged.
Watts says in many cases she has looked at, pedestrians struck by cars were legally crossing during a “walk” phase. But she says too many drivers feel “entitled” and think that pedestrians should stop for cars in all instances.
“People are stuck in this victim-blaming mindset. But the drivers who are speeding or on the phone not paying attention should be blamed. Not us.”
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