A man is dead after being struck by a car near Glenwood Road and Atherton Drive in unincorporated Decatur, DeKalb County police say. Officers found the man injured at the scene and rushed him to a hospital, where he died. He had not been publicly identified as of the report.
According to Atlanta News First, officers were called to the area on Glenwood Road near Atherton Drive on Wednesday morning. Police believe the man crossed the street away from a crosswalk when he was hit, and investigators noted he was wearing dark clothes at the time. The driver remained at the scene and is cooperating with police, the outlet reports, and no charges had been announced as of publication.
A Pattern of Danger Along Glenwood Road
This is not the only recent crash along that stretch of road. Less than a month earlier, on October 15, a vehicle seriously injured a man at the intersection of Glenwood Road and Candler Road, according to a report from FOX 5 Atlanta. In that case, police said the man darted into a crosswalk when he was struck, the driver also stayed at the scene, and authorities had not identified the pedestrian, released his age, or announced charges.
Pedestrian deaths have been climbing across DeKalb County in recent years. A report cited by Decaturish found that pedestrian fatalities rose 40 percent between 2022 and 2023, climbing from 42 deaths to 59 — though the county has pushed back on that figure, saying the 2023 total appeared to include eight crashes categorized as unknown that should not have been counted as fatal pedestrian crashes. The same report found that most pedestrian crashes in the counties studied happened within walking distance of a bus stop, and that five of seven fatalities recorded on Memorial Drive between 2019 and 2023 occurred on the DeKalb portion of that road.
Other DeKalb Crashes Highlight Uneven Outcomes
Other recent incidents show how inconsistently these cases can be resolved. In one case reported by Decaturish, a 22-year-old woman was seriously injured when a driver struck her in a marked crosswalk on East College Avenue, and Decatur police cited that driver for failure to yield to a pedestrian. In another, Quanisha Ball, 31, died after a Dodge Challenger driver struck her at Scott Boulevard and Blackmon Drive back on Nov. 17, 2022 — and the driver in that case was never charged.
No further details have been released about Wednesday's fatal crash near Glenwood Road and Atherton Drive. DeKalb County police have not said whether charges are being considered against the driver, and the identity of the man who died had not been made public.
