‘It’s scary’: Richmond County pedestrian deaths more than double

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - We’ve been digging into the surge in pedestrian deaths in Richmond County.

We’ve collected data that shows 60% of those deaths happen in one zip code: 30906.

According to numbers from Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen, 19 pedestrians have died in 2023. Last year, that number was eight.

“It’s scary. It’s something we weren’t expecting and it’s happening all the time. We’re getting pedestrians struck. It’s very alarming,” said Bowen.

DEADLY CSRA ROADS:

• Separate crashes claim 2 lives in Augusta
• 2 killed when car collides with school bus in Aiken County
• 58-year-old dies several days after crash on Meadowbrook Drive

These are not easy cases to investigate.

“There’s no way to figure out what’s happening here,” said Bowen.

Each case comes with a different name, but the pain attached to each name is the same.

“It affects a lot of people when somebody gets hit, you got the families of the victim, you’ve got the driver of the vehicle that’s got to live with this now and it’s very bad,” said Bowen.

It never gets better either.

“The investigation takes a while especially if we have an autopsy done,” said Bowen.

Getting an autopsy is something Bowen and his office requests if they think its needed.

“We want to give closure to the family and give a true cause of death. We don’t want to be guessing,” said Bowen.

Bowen also said a majority of these deaths are happening in the dark hours.

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