Nineteen die on Georgia roadways during Thanksgiving weekend

ATLANTA — Nineteen people died in traffic wrecks over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the Georgia Department of Public Safety reported Monday.

Of the 19 deaths, 15 were worked by state troopers and the remaining four by local law enforcement. Two of the fatalities were in Southwest Georgia and were worked by the Cuthbert State Patrol post.

One of those was a motorcycle crash that took place Sunday on Radney Road in Early County, about a mile south of Georgia Highway 200. Trooper Tommy Bonner, with the Cuthbert post, said Scott Jeffrey Burr, 41, lost control of his motorcycle, entered a ditch, struck a culvert and went airborne before striking a parked vehicle around 2:30 p.m.

There were no other vehicles or injuries associated with the crash, Bonner said.

Sgt. 1st Class John VanLandingham, GSP post commander in Cuthbert, said the other crash involved a pickup truck and a semi truck around 5 a.m. on Friday on Georgia Highway 1 south of Cuthbert. The tractor-trailer was traveling south while the pickup truck was traveling north. The truck veered into the path of the semi, causing the two to collide, VanLandingham said.

The pickup truck veered back after impact and overturned. The driver of that vehicle, John Arthur Gibson, was killed on impact. The semi caught fire and had to be towed away.

The driver of the semi suffered minor injuries, VanLandingham said.

The 19 Georgia deaths were four more than were recorded on Georgia highways during last year’s Thanksgiving holiday travel period. There were 21 road fatalities in 2012.

During the 2013 Thanksgiving period, there were 15 fatalities in Georgia. The Georgia State Patrol investigated 619 traffic crashes across the state that resulted in 367 injuries and 10 of the fatalities. In addition, troopers made 242 arrests for driving under the influence.

The Department of Public Safety did not have the number of crashes, injuries and DUI arrests for the just-completed holiday weekend posted Monday.

Thanksgiving is the most heavily traveled period of the year in the United States. AAA The Auto Club had predicted that this would be the biggest volume of traffic for the long holiday weekend in seven years, with 46.3 million Americans expected to have traveled 50 or more miles from home during the period from Wednesday to Sunday midnight.

Of those, which represented a 4.2 percent increase over 2013 travel volume, the vast majority — 41.3 million — were planning to travel by automobile, AAA said. In addition to those driving through the state, 1.2 million of the 1.3 million Georgians who were traveling were planning to drive. For Georgia, that was up by about 80,000, or 7.14 percent, from 2013.

While holiday travel periods can be longer or shorter depending on the day on which a holiday falls, the Thanksgiving travel period always is 102 hours long, running from 6 p.m. Wednesday night (Thanksgiving eve) and ending at midnight on Sunday.

The most deaths ever recorded on Georgia roadways over the Thanksgiving holiday period is 43 in 1969. The fewest were four in 1949.