ATLANTA — An Atlanta man said he narrowly avoided a deadly head-on crash early Saturday morning when video shows another driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 75 near midtown Atlanta.
Darrel Ricardo said he was driving home after finishing an Uber shift around 4 a.m. Saturday when he saw headlights coming directly toward him on I-75 South near the Atlantic Station area.
“This all happened really fast,” Ricardo said.
Ricardo said he was driving in the far right lane.
“You know how you pass the Howell Mill exit, and it starts to bend around, and you can’t see anything before it bends, and all of a sudden it opens up to the city,” he said. “When it opens up to the city, I see lights, but I don’t think it’s a car coming towards me.”
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A video recorded by Ricardo’s Tesla camera captured another Tesla speeding toward him in the wrong direction.
“As fast as I was coming at them, they were coming at me, maybe faster,” Ricardo said.
Ricardo said he slammed on his brakes and swerved to avoid a crash.
“That would have been a head on collision 100%,” he said before adding, “God is so good.”
Ricardo believes the other driver may have been impaired and entered the interstate from the Atlantic Station area, mistakenly traveling onto the highway in the wrong direction.
“There was no indication that they had any idea they were moving toward traffic and not with traffic,” he said.
Ricardo said he wants authorities to investigate and hold the driver accountable.
“I want somebody to look into it and get that person off the streets because they need to understand the accountability and the consequence attached to making such a reckless decision,” he said.
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Channel 2’s Eryn Rogers reached out to the Atlanta Police Department to ask whether investigators are looking into the incident and whether they have been able to identify the driver. A spokesperson said they were checking on the case status.
After the close call, Ricardo said he hopes other drivers think more carefully about the safety of those around them.
“We have to be responsible for the people around you, so make decisions that protect them,” he said.
Ricardo said the experience left him emotional and grateful to still be alive.
“I know that I danced with life in that moment. It made me very emotional,” he said.
When asked whether agencies track wrong-way driving incidents, Atlanta police said they were unsure if those incidents are specifically tracked and were checking.
The Georgia State Patrol said it only tracks crashes it investigates. So far this year in Fulton County, troopers said they have investigated four wrong-way crashes.
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