If you've driven Covington Highway through Stonecrest, merged onto I-285 at Spaghetti Junction, or crossed Peachtree Industrial at rush hour, you already know some roads in this region feel like a gamble. The data backs that up. In 2024, 425 people died in traffic crashes across just five metro counties (Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett), more than the region's homicide count for the same year12. Statewide, the eleven-county Atlanta region reported 523 traffic fatalities in 2023 alone3.
This page pulls together the intersections, corridors, and interstates that show up again and again in Georgia DOT crash counts, state highway safety reports, and the City of Atlanta's own crash mapping, so you know where the risk actually concentrates, and what to do if you or someone you love gets hurt there.
The five worst intersections by crash count
Georgia DOT crash data compiled by WSB-TV ranked these as metro Atlanta's highest-crash intersections4:
- Covington Highway and Panola Road, Stonecrest (DeKalb County): 207 crashes
- Covington Highway and South Hairston Road (DeKalb County): 154 crashes
- North Hairston Road and Memorial Drive, Stone Mountain (DeKalb County): 140 crashes
- Godby Road and Old National Highway (Clayton County): 138 crashes
- Tara Boulevard and Veterans Memorial Parkway (Clayton County): 135 crashes
Clayton County Commissioner Felicia Franklin told WSB-TV the causes are layered: heavy through-traffic where state highways meet, and drivers who won't slow down. "It's a mix of both, be quite honest. A lot of it is the number of cars going through, but at the same token we need to make sure people slow down," she said4. Longtime Panola Road resident Joseph Hall was more blunt, calling the intersection "way way way too dangerous"4. One caveat: these counts reflect crashes at or near the intersection, not only collisions inside the marked crosswalks4.
I-285 and Spaghetti Junction
Zoom out to the interstates and I-285, the Perimeter, is where a lot of that risk concentrates. Its interchange with I-85, known locally as Spaghetti Junction and officially as the Tom Moreland Interchange, is one of the busiest and most tangled in the Southeast, and it shows up in local news on a rotating basis. In April 2026, two separate deadly crashes on I-285 disrupted the same morning commute: one near New Northside Drive in Sandy Springs, the other near Riverdale Road in Clayton County5. In July 2026, a motorcyclist died after being struck by two tractor-trailers on I-285 South near Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway6. In January 2026, a three-vehicle crash on I-285 West near Old National Highway in Fulton County killed one person7. Spaghetti Junction's dozens of ramps and high-speed merges have their own history of structural damage: a truck strike there once tore a section of concrete barrier loose above I-858.
Statewide, a quarter of all fatal crashes (372 of 1,491 in 2023) happen at an intersection or within 50 feet of one, and that share has crept up rather than down over the past several years3.
The streets Atlanta itself flags as highest risk
The City of Atlanta doesn't wait on outside analysts to tell it where the risk is. Its Vision Zero Action Plan, finalized in November 2023, maps a "high injury network": less than 10% of city surface streets that account for 73% of all fatal and serious-injury crashes910. Juniper Street in Midtown, between 14th Street and Ponce de Leon Avenue, saw 620 crashes between 2018 and 2022, roughly one every three days, which is why the city and Midtown Alliance put $8 million into rebuilding it as a complete street10. Lee Street in southwest Atlanta, near the West End MARTA station, is getting a roughly $13 million trail and safety overhaul, partly funded by the 2022 TSPLOST vote10. Citywide, 2021 was the deadliest year in a decade with 100 traffic deaths, and 47 people were killed on Atlanta surface streets in 20239.
Speed is the throughline. The city says speed was a factor in 54% of Atlanta's 2019 traffic deaths, and its pedestrian fatality rate runs about three times that of Seattle, Minneapolis, or Boston9.
Pedestrians carry the heaviest toll
Non-motorists are less than 1% of everyone involved in a Georgia crash, but they made up 21% of the state's traffic deaths in 2023, and pedestrian fatalities alone climbed 90% statewide since 2014, from 163 to 31011. The Atlanta region carries most of that weight: 58% of Georgia's pedestrian crashes happen in these eleven counties, at a rate of 32.22 pedestrian crashes per 100,000 residents, the highest of any region type in the state11. Within the region, 40% of pedestrian crashes happen on minor arterial roads, and 16% of pedestrian deaths happen right on the interstate itself11.
By county, Fulton (164 pedestrian serious injuries and deaths in 2023) and DeKalb (136) rank first and second in raw counts, and DeKalb has the highest rate per capita at 17.82 per 100,000 residents11. Inside the region, the City of Atlanta logged 364 pedestrian serious injuries and fatalities on its own, more than any other place in Georgia, a rate twice the regional average, and College Park's pedestrian injury rate runs nearly five times higher still11. Candler Road on Atlanta's east side, where Allen London was killed at a bus stop in 2024, shows the gap between how a road is built and how people actually cross it2.
What this means if you're hurt there
None of this is abstract if you were just in a wreck on Covington Highway, I-285, or one of Atlanta's high-injury streets. Georgia crash reports, GDOT signal-timing records, and a corridor's known crash history can all matter to how a claim gets evaluated, especially at an intersection GDOT already knows is a problem. If you need help figuring out next steps, the legal directory lists attorneys who handle Georgia car accident cases.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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Propel ATL, Five-County Crash Report 2024, https://www.letspropelatl.org/five_county_crash_report_2024
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CBS News Atlanta, "Atlanta families call for safer streets after data shows traffic deaths outpace homicides," https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/atlanta/news/atlanta-families-call-for-safer-streets-after-data-shows-traffic-deaths-outpace-homicides
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Georgia Crash Outcomes Data Evaluation System, "Overview of Motor Vehicle Crashes in 2023," Governor's Office of Highway Safety (October 2025), https://www.gahighwaysafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2023-Overview-of-Motor-Vehicle-Crashes.pdf
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WSB-TV, "Which metro Atlanta intersections had the most crashes last year? Here's what the data shows," https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/clayton-county/atlanta-area-intersection-site-more-than-200-crashes/RPWQ4LINXBBRNPEP3CJ4WUUYKM/
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WSB Radio, "Two deadly crashes on I-285 impact metro Atlanta morning commute," https://www.wsbradio.com/traffic/two-deadly-crashes-i-285-impact-metro-atlanta-morning-commute/EQNBBMBRFRD6HG6J7ENSO2YWBQ/
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Atlanta News First, "Motorcyclist dies in accident involving 2 tractor-trailers on I-285 in Atlanta, GSP says" (July 23, 2026), https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2026/07/23/crash-between-motorcycle-2-tractor-trailers-snarls-traffic-i-285-atlanta/
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11Alive, "Passenger dies after crash on I-285 West involving 3 vehicles in Fulton County, officials say," https://www.11alive.com/article/traffic/1-dead-after-crash-on-i-285-west-involving-3-vehicles-in-fulton-county-officials-say/85-9822ffe9-dba3-4c18-a3ba-e24f28c4c48d
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Repairs underway at Spaghetti Junction after truck crashes into exit ramp wall," https://www.ajc.com/news/traffic/repairs-underway-spaghetti-junction-after-truck-crashes-into-exit-ramp-wall/dWH4QQFiUxn4uwI0hJQOBJ/
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City of Atlanta Department of Transportation, Vision Zero, https://web.atlantaga.gov/vizionzero/
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Rough Draft Atlanta, "Atlanta's Vision Zero plan aims to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2040" (April 26, 2024), https://roughdraftatlanta.com/2024/04/26/atlantas-vision-zero-plan-aims-to-eliminate-traffic-fatalities-by-2040/
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Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety, "Georgia Traffic Safety Facts: Pedestrians and Bicyclists (Non-Motorists), 2023 Data" (April 2025), https://www.gahighwaysafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2023-Non-Motorist-Pedestrian-and-Bicyclist-Georgia-Traffic-Safety-Facts.v2.pdf