The city of Atlanta does not seem to be built with pedestrian considerations and every now and then, there is news of pedestrians hit by cars. You can find numbers of streets without sidewalks in Atlanta especially with only 1000 yards to the crosswalks in many areas. Most common areas with a high number of pedestrian accidents are Tara Boulevard and Bufford highway areas. In spite of the numerous attempts by the city authorities to improve the Buford highway, people still continue to run over with alarming rate on Tara Boulevard. As per Buford Law statistics, college students getting run over has tremendously increased in the last few years on the crossway between State campus of Georgia and Georgia tech.
In the above context, the biggest problem for the people especially the victims is that most police personnel in-charge of investigation are often biased against the cause of the pedestrians unless and until there are strong evidence or eye-witnesses of driver’s fault of speed driving or the victims crossing the street on a crosswalk. Almost in every case of run-down, you will find this embarrassment and the cops blaming the pedestrians for their carelessness while crossing the streets.
The law in relation to the rights of the pedestrians are duly laid out in the official Georgia code and the O.C.G.A 40-6-93 says that every driver must take at most care to avoid pedestrian colliding on any roadway. The drivers must warn the pedestrians by a sound horn when essential and maintain adequate precautions especially in the case of children or any confused or intoxicated or incapacitated person.
Similarly, the O.C.G.A 40-6-92 dealing with “jaywalking and pedestrian crossing” section (a) says that every pedestrian who is crossing the street irrespective of crosswalk or no crosswalk will eventually yield the right of way for all vehicles provided he or she has already entered the road safely which means if you are already in the road and a car comes along the way must yield the right of way for you.