If you get hit by an 18-wheeler in Atlanta — notorious for its hostile pedestrian environment— the police will make sure you suffer — even more, that is, than the pain of being hit by a giant truck.
On Wednesday, a woman accidentally stepped in front of a tractor-trailer truck in an impoverished southwest Atlanta neighborhood, and while she was stable when taken to the hospital, the Atlanta Police Department is still intent on making things worse, planning to charge her with “misdemeanor pedestrian in the roadway.”
Investigators told AJC.com the woman was injured but seemed to be stable when she was taken to the hospital. She will be charged with misdemeanor pedestrian in the roadway.
The truck driver was not cited, police said.
Darin Givens, an Atlanta urbanist and pedestrian advocate, tweeted a picture of the roadway where the woman was hit, which he notes features multiple MARTA bus stops, but no sidewalks, crosswalks or pedestrian lights. Imagine, if you will, attempting to access bus stops on this street — or cross the road to access one in your direction of travel — without entering the roadway.
Georgia has a history of criminalizing pedestrians — often too poor to afford a car — forced to navigate its hostile and dangerous roads. In 2011, a Georgia mother was convicted of vehicular homicide when a drunk driver killed one of her children as she attempted to cross a Marietta road — with few crosswalks — from the bus stop to her apartment complex.
In metropolitan Atlanta, if you’re too poor to afford a car — or even just choose to navigate the sprawling region by foot — expect for the police to punish you for existing.