North Decatur Road Hit-and-Run Update
November 16, 2009 | 12:56 pmThe AJC has an update on the woman who was the vicitim of a hit-and-run on North Decatur last week, including her name and a description of the vehicle involved.
DeKalb County police are searching for a white car that was involved in a deadly hit and run Tuesday night.
Margaret Henderson, 58, was walking east on North Decatur Road around 7 p.m., when she was struck by the car, DeKalb police spokesman Jason Gagnon said.
According to DeKalb police, the car was traveling eastbound when it hit Henderson, but then did a u-turn and fled the scene going west.
“…Police are questioning witnesses, and believe Henderson was walking in the roadway, Gagnon said.”
This statement in the AJC article would make a casual reader think Ms. Henderson was doing something wrong by walking in the roadway. But if you examine that area in person, a metal railing (installed by Dekalb County) forces pedestrians directly into the roadway. There’s not even an inch of shoulder to walk on. There’s also no escape route if a car swerves into a pedestrian there.
There is also a metal railing on the south side of North Decatur Road a few blocks east of its intersection with Clairmont too: same situation, it forces pedestrians directly onto the road. I’m very sad that Ms. Henderson was killed and doubly sad that the driver was so cowardly that he or she did not try to help her nor even report this accident. Ms. Henderson’s family will wonder every day “WHO” did this — “WHO” turned around and drove away without even calling for help.
I have done a little snooping into the story from a reporting perspective and the AJC is only one of three sources reporting the incident happened at Landover. The other two sources I looked at are myfoxatlanta.com and wsbtv.com. Both are reporting that the incident happened “on N. Decatur Rd, just inside I-285″. The video at myfoxatlanta.com shows specifically “Lantern Park Lane” at 0:44. The pictures on wsbtv.com do not support the location of Landover and N. Decatur Rd, with the first picture of the slideshow showing a brick, two-story house on a corner. The second picture clearly shows “Lantern Ridge” on a monument sign. And a quick look at Google maps shows a convenience store in very close proximity, on the north side of N. Decatur Road, just inside I-285.
I’m not saying this diminishes the horrific nature of the hit-and-run. I’m just trying to get some facts straight. Maybe the right turn lane from Lantern Park Lane, and the 2-story brick house at the SE corner of N. Decatur Rd and Creekview Ct. was just where the reporters and photographers were standing to do the story. The story was copy and pasted from the AJC website and posted on several neighborhood and community blogs…not just DM.
I think the AJC has the wrong location. Myfoxatlanta and wsbtv both show the location to be and Lantern Park Lane, near I-285.
Thanks for the updated information. More fact-free reporting from the AJC.
WSB reports that Mrs. Henderson was the mother of 8 children. Let’s remember that driving is not a video game. Vulnerable road users are not “soft targets”, they are our brothers and sisters.
I can understand not seeing someone on the road, and I can understand that accidents do happen. But what I can NOT understand is someone who is so cowardly and cruel to just drive away. One of my best friends (plus 4 other pedestrians) were killed in an accident a couple of years ago, because they were on the street trying to help an injured person. There were several volunteers signaling and diverting traffic from the street until the police could reach the scene of the original wreck. A drunk woman in a truck drove right through the middle of the group of people on the street and killed 5 of them. She just kept on driving. She called the police and turned herself in the next morning when she remembered something about the accident. FIVE PEOPLE DEAD because of DUI and carelessness, but at least she had the guts to turn herself in…