Charles Love was out for an evening bike ride on Lee Street near Fort McPherson in Southwest Atlanta on Wednesday when a driver he believes was speeding struck him and drove off, leaving bystanders to call 911 for him and his riding partner. Love, a Fulton County Schools administrator, suffered four fractures in his back, a dislocated shoulder, road rash, and injuries severe enough that surgeons placed a foot-long rod in his right leg.
Love remains hospitalized at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta following multiple surgeries, according to Atlanta News First. He believes the vehicle that hit him was a Nissan sedan, though Atlanta police have not made any arrests and are still searching for the vehicle and driver responsible.
A Health Journey Interrupted
The crash comes after what Love describes as a year of major personal transformation. He had lost 55 pounds and gotten much stronger over the past year, with cycling central to that health journey, the outlet's report notes. He had a triathlon scheduled for August 29 before the crash derailed those plans.
Despite the severity of his injuries, Love struck a note of resilience. “God is not done with me, and I'm not done with this world and my life,” he said, according to the same report. He expects to remain hospitalized for several more days as he continues to recover.
Where Love Works — and a Name to Avoid Confusing
Love serves as Dean of Students at McNair Middle School, part of Fulton County Schools. That campus, formally known as Ronald E. McNair Middle School at 2800 Burdett Road in College Park, was named in 1988 to honor NASA astronaut Dr. Ronald E. McNair, who died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, per the National Center for Education Statistics. It served 727 students in grades six through eight during the 2024-2025 school year. It is a separate school from DeKalb County's McNair Middle School in Decatur, the site of a shooting incident reported by Hoodline earlier this year.
Love's family has set up a fundraiser to help cover costs associated with his surgeries, according to Atlanta News First's reporting. The report does not specify a fundraising goal or platform.
A Corridor Known for Danger
The stretch of Lee Street SW where Love was struck is not new to traffic safety concerns. The road is designated as part of Atlanta's High-Injury Network by the traffic safety advocacy group Propel ATL, which identifies it among the roughly 10% of city streets that account for a majority of severe traffic injuries and fatalities citywide. Hoodline has also reported on a separate incident on Lee Street SW, when an I-20 drug chase ended in a multi-car crash that terminated on the same corridor.
Love's case adds to a troubling pattern of drivers fleeing after serious crashes in the region. Hoodline recently covered the case of Susan Kirkland, killed in a Gwinnett County street race where one driver also fled the scene. Under Georgia Code § 40-6-270, a driver who knowingly leaves the scene of an accident resulting in serious injury or death commits a felony punishable by one to five years in prison, according to Justia Law. Georgia law distinguishes non-injury hit-and-runs as misdemeanors, but crashes causing serious injury like Love's trigger felony exposure once a suspect is identified.
Georgia's Passing Law and a Regional Safety Gap
Georgia's so-called “3 Feet Law,” updated in July 2021, requires drivers to give bicyclists at least three feet of clearance when passing and mandates either a lane change, when possible, or slowing at least 10 mph below the speed limit if a lane change is not safe, per the The Citizen. The 2021 revision to O.C.G.A. § 40-6-56 also allowed drivers to cross double-yellow lines when it is safe to do so in order to provide that clearance.
The broader numbers underscore why advocates have pushed for stronger protections. Georgia recorded 24 bicyclist fatalities in 2023 out of 1,615 total traffic deaths statewide, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data cited by CycleStay Guide. A December 2025 Propel ATL report found metro Atlanta averaged 14.2 traffic deaths per 100,000 residents between 2013 and 2023, exceeding the national average of 11.6 and far surpassing rates in cities like Chicago and Seattle. The same report found predominantly Black census tracts in metro Atlanta make up 43.1% of all tracts but account for 61.3% of total traffic fatalities in the five-county region.
Atlanta adopted a Vision Zero Action Plan in 2020 aiming to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries, and city planning data found excessive speed was a contributing factor in 54% of city traffic deaths in 2019, according to the Atlanta Department of Transportation. For now, Love's recovery continues at Grady, whose Marcus Trauma Center is metro Atlanta's only Level I trauma facility, while police continue searching for the driver who left him on Lee Street.
