A 45-year-old Warner Robins man has died after being struck by a vehicle in the early morning hours on Watson Boulevard, in a crash that remains under investigation with no charges announced. Trovoris Stephens was hit around 2 a.m. Friday near the 1100 block of the busy roadway and later died at a Macon hospital.
Stephens was taken by ambulance to Atrium Navicent Health in Macon, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving, according to 41NBC. The Warner Robins Police Department's Traffic Division is investigating the fatal collision, the outlet reported. As of now, no charges have been announced in connection with the crash, according to WGXA, and the investigation is ongoing.
A Recurring Stretch of Road
Friday's crash is not the first fatal pedestrian collision reported on Watson Boulevard in recent years. In September 2022, a man crossing Watson Boulevard on a Sunday night was struck and killed by a Kia Sorento traveling in the outside lane, according to WGXA. Houston County Coroner James Williams identified that victim as 38-year-old David Eugene Clayton, the station reported.
Two years earlier, in September 2020, police responded to a crash at 2706 Watson Boulevard after a 2009 Toyota Camry traveling east struck Roy Long, who was beside the eastbound lane pushing a shopping cart. The same report noted that Long was originally listed in critical condition but later died. A separate Watson Boulevard fatality involved 53-year-old Clinton Taylor of Centerville, who was struck while crossing outside a crosswalk around 8:30 p.m. in the 1800 block, according to hhjonline.com. In that case, the vehicle involved left the scene without stopping, and the site reported that the suspect and the vehicle were at large.
A Statewide Pattern of Nighttime Deaths
The Watson Boulevard crashes echo a broader trend playing out across Georgia. Pedestrian fatalities statewide climbed 90 percent over the past decade, rising from 163 deaths in 2014 to 310 in 2023, according to data from gahighwaysafety.org. The same report found that 81 percent of pedestrian fatalities in 2023 occurred in dark lighting conditions, and that over the 2014-2023 period, more than three-quarters of fatal pedestrian crashes in the state happened outside intersections.
A separate appendix in that report lists 18 pedestrians seriously or fatally injured in Warner Robins between 2021 and 2023, though the figures do not establish a trend specific to Watson Boulevard itself. The Georgia Department of Transportation also maintains a crash data dashboard covering crashes on the state's public roads over the past five years, with filters for pedestrian-involved incidents, per crashmanual.dot.ga.gov.
No further details about Friday's crash, including the driver involved or any contributing factors, have been released. The Warner Robins Police Department's Traffic Division investigation into Stephens's death remains open.
