A 27-year-old Anniston man died early Sunday morning after his car left the roadway on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Hobson City, struck a ditch, and overturned, ejecting him from the vehicle. DjQuae Calhoun was pronounced dead at the scene, and officials say he was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.
The single-vehicle crash happened around 1:05 a.m. on Sunday near Lindsey Circle, within Hobson City limits in Calhoun County, according to AL.com. Calhoun was driving a 2014 Nissan Maxima when it left the road and hit the ditch, causing the car to flip. He was ejected during the crash and pronounced dead at the scene, officials said. Calhoun was a resident of nearby Anniston at the time of his death, tying the crash scene in Hobson City to his hometown just a few miles away.
Investigation Remains Open
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s Highway Patrol Division continues to investigate the crash, per the same account from AL.com. Beyond the basic sequence — leaving the road, striking the ditch, overturning, and the fatal ejection — details such as the vehicle’s speed, roadway conditions, or whether impairment played a role have not been made public.
The crash occurred on one of Hobson City’s central thoroughfares. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive anchors municipal infrastructure in the town, including the Hobson City City Council, according to the Calhoun County Commissioner of Licenses. Hobson City itself carries notable historical weight: it was incorporated on August 16, 1899, becoming Alabama’s first self-governed, all-Black municipality after a history of discrimination and forced relocation, according to Wikipedia.
Seat Belts and Alabama's Rural Roads
The circumstances of Calhoun’s death reflect a pattern seen across Alabama roadways. State crash data analyzed by Drive Safe Alabama shows that 60 percent of motorists killed on Alabama roads were not wearing seat belts. The same organization’s traffic safety data found that while 76 percent of all crashes statewide happen in urban areas, 58 percent of all traffic fatalities occur on rural roads — a reminder that smaller routes like the one running through Hobson City can carry outsized risk.
Research from the Center for Advanced Public Safety at the University of Alabama found that unrestrained vehicle occupants are 40 to 50 times more likely to die in a crash than those who buckle up, a gap driven largely by a 500-fold increase in ejection risk, according to University of Alabama News. Alabama’s seat-belt law is addressed in Section 32-5B-4 of the Code of Alabama, per Justia Law.
No further details about the crash have been released as ALEA’s Highway Patrol Division continues its investigation.
