A 78-year-old Athens woman has died three days after a two-vehicle crash on Jefferson Road that police initially believed had left both drivers with only minor injuries. Helen Blackmon was driving a 2011 Chevrolet Equinox north on Jefferson Road around 2:45 p.m. on September 10 when she attempted to turn left onto Lakeland Drive and collided with a southbound 2025 Chevrolet Traverse, according to police.
Both drivers were taken to a local hospital following the crash, and investigators said at the time that they appeared to have only minor injuries, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta. Blackmon died from her injuries on September 13, according to police. Her death was officially recorded by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department as the jurisdiction's ninth traffic fatality of 2026, Now Georgia reports.
The Athens-Clarke County Police Department is investigating the crash and has not released the identity or condition of the Chevrolet Traverse driver. Anyone with information about the collision is asked to contact Senior Police Officer Lauren Barnard at [email protected] or 762-400-7222.
What Georgia Law Says About Left Turns
Under Georgia Code § 40-6-71, a driver intending to turn left at an intersection must yield the right-of-way to oncoming vehicles that are within the intersection or close enough to pose an immediate hazard, according to Justia Law. Police say Blackmon was making a left turn across southbound traffic when the crash occurred. Legal researchers note that comparative fault can still be evaluated if the oncoming vehicle's speed or driver distraction played a role in a collision.
Intersections account for more than 40 percent of all motor vehicle crashes nationwide, with left-turning vehicles entering the path of oncoming traffic representing one of the most common configurations, according to NHTSA statistics summarized by the Wetherington Law Firm. The vehicles in this crash were traveling in opposite directions.
Why Delayed Injuries Can Prove Fatal for Older Drivers
Blackmon died three days after the crash, despite the initial assessment of minor injuries. Nationally, 8,019 people aged 65 and older were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2024, about 20 percent of all U.S. traffic fatalities, even though older drivers made up 23 percent of licensed drivers that year, per the federal Traffic Safety Marketing program.
A Corridor Already Flagged for Safety Concerns
Athens-Clarke County's Transportation & Public Works Department describes its transportation-related services. The county's studies page mentions Prince Avenue and other corridor studies.
Blackmon's death is the latest in a string of fatal crashes across Athens-Clarke County this year. Just over a month earlier, a 9-year-old pedestrian died three days after being struck by a pickup truck on Lexington Road, a crash the county recorded at the time as its seventh traffic fatality of 2026, a case Hoodline previously reported. A local news archive also lists an elderly wrong-way-driver crash, according to another Hoodline report.
