Why “Second Crash” Situations Are So Dangerous

What happened on I-285 Sunday is what traffic engineers call a secondary crash — a wreck that happens because of an earlier one, either at the original scene or in the backup it creates. These are not rare, and they are not minor. Federal Highway Administration research has found that secondary crashes account for roughly 20 percent of all crashes and about 18 percent of all fatalities on freeways.

The reasons are mechanical. Engineers build interstates on the assumption that everything on them moves in the same direction at roughly the same speed. The moment that assumption breaks — a stopped car, a person on foot, a lane that suddenly ends in brake lights — the margin for error collapses. On a dark interstate, an approaching driver may have only a second or two between the moment a person becomes visible and the moment of impact. Headlight glare, curves, crest hills, and the visual clutter of emergency lights all shorten that window further.

A person standing in or near a travel lane is at the sharpest end of that risk, with no crosswalk, no signal, no protection, and no realistic way to move faster than traffic. Nationally, about one in every six traffic deaths involves pedestrians and bicyclists. In the metro Atlanta area, deaths of pedestrians on highways have been a persistent issue, with several incidents reported on local interstates in just the past few weeks.

What Georgia Law Asks of Drivers Approaching a Scene

Georgia’s Move Over Law, codified at O.C.G.A. § 40-6-16, requires drivers approaching a stationary emergency vehicle, tow truck, highway maintenance vehicle, or utility vehicle displaying flashing lights to move over one lane if it is safe to do so. If changing lanes is not possible, the driver must slow below the posted speed limit and be prepared to stop.

The statute applies specifically to vehicles with flashing lights, so it does not squarely cover every roadside situation — including, potentially, a private citizen on foot. But the safety principle behind it is broader than the text: when something unusual is happening ahead on a highway, drivers must reduce speed, increase following distance, and scan for people outside their vehicles. Georgia law separately imposes a general duty of due care, which includes keeping a proper lookout and controlling speed based on actual conditions rather than the number on the sign.

The safest advice for anyone who comes upon a wreck is also the hardest to follow when instinct says to help: stay in your vehicle if you can, get well off the roadway if you cannot, turn on your hazard lights, and call 911 rather than stepping into a travel lane.

What This May Mean for the Family

Nothing here is a judgment about fault in this specific case — the investigation is early, and investigators have announced no findings. But families in this position often face practical and legal questions immediately, before anyone has answers about what happened.

In Georgia, when someone dies because of another party’s negligence, state law recognizes two separate claims. A wrongful death claim under O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2 belongs to the surviving spouse, children, or parents and seeks the “full value of the life of the decedent” — a measure Georgia courts treat as including both economic losses like lost income and services and the intangible value of the life itself, from the deceased person’s perspective. A separate estate claim, brought by the personal representative, covers medical expenses, funeral and burial costs, and any conscious pain and suffering before death.

Georgia’s comparative negligence rule can also matter in cases involving a pedestrian on a highway. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33, a person’s recovery decreases based on their own percentage of fault and becomes completely barred if they are found responsible for 50 percent or more. That analysis depends heavily on facts that are not yet public here — lighting, speed, warning devices, visibility, and the exact position of each party. The law focuses on vehicles that have flashing lights, so it doesn’t clearly apply to every situation on the side of the road, like a person walking there. Georgia’s general statute of limitations for wrongful death and personal injury claims is two years.

For now, the most useful thing is an accurate record of known events: a woman stopped on a metro Atlanta interstate to keep other people safe, and someone killed her doing it. DeKalb County police are still working to determine the rest.