ATLANTA, GA – August 25, 2026 – PRESSADVANTAGE –
Ross Moore Law is highlighting how a recent change in Georgia law governing seatbelt evidence affects injury claims arising from car accidents in Decatur and DeKalb County, following two fatal crashes reported in early 2026. On May 12, 2026, a fatal head-on crash on Glenwood Road at the intersection of Hollyhock Terrace in Decatur killed one woman and left both drivers in critical condition. DeKalb County Police reported that a driver traveling on Glenwood Road crossed the center line into oncoming traffic at approximately 6:02 p.m., producing a head-on collision on a two-lane residential arterial that connects Decatur neighborhoods to the I-285 interchange.
Months earlier, on January 3, 2026, a multi-car fatal crash on Highway 78 eastbound near Mountain Industrial Boulevard in DeKalb County killed one person and closed the roadway for hours. According to Atlanta News First, DeKalb County Police investigated a suspected wrong-way driver as the cause, reflecting a recurring wrong-way pattern on the US-78 corridor that connects Decatur to Stone Mountain and I-285.
These incidents occur within a broader crash environment. Georgia Department of Transportation crash records for 2018 to 2022 document nearly 3,300 car accidents within Decatur city limits over the five-year period, resulting in six fatalities and approximately 1,000 injuries, according to state figures compiled by the Georgia Department of Transportation. As the DeKalb County seat, Decatur places primary corridors such as Ponce de Leon Avenue, Scott Boulevard, Memorial Drive, and Glenwood Road at the intersection of roughly 24,000 residents and the commuter, MARTA, and commercial traffic moving between downtown Atlanta and points east.
The Ross Moore Law Decatur Car Accident Lawyer team serves DeKalb County victims from an Atlanta office, with matters filed in DeKalb County State Court and Superior Court in Decatur.
A legal development is reshaping how these claims are litigated. Georgia Senate Bill 68, signed April 21, 2025, removed the state’s longstanding prohibition on seatbelt evidence in civil personal injury trials. Under the prior rule, courts categorically excluded any reference to whether an injured person was wearing a seatbelt. The statute now permits defendants to introduce evidence that a car accident victim was not wearing a seatbelt and to argue that the absence reduced the damages recoverable for injuries a properly worn seatbelt would have mitigated. The statute does not itself require any particular reduction in damages, leaving the weight of such evidence to the judge or jury.
“Before April 2025, Georgia courts categorically excluded seatbelt evidence from civil injury trials, meaning a victim’s failure to wear a seatbelt could not be raised regardless of how serious the resulting injuries were,” said Ross Moore, Founding Attorney at Ross Moore Law. “SB 68 removed that exclusion, and the firm anticipates that defense teams in DeKalb County cases will increasingly seek to introduce seatbelt evidence in serious-injury matters where crash physics suggest a seatbelt would have reduced injury severity. In response, the firm documents medical evidence immediately, establishing the full injury causation picture from the first emergency room visit, before defense-retained biomechanical experts construct a seatbelt-mitigation argument.” A Decatur Car Accident Lawyer with the firm handles cases arising from crashes on Glenwood Road, Ponce de Leon Avenue, Scott Boulevard, and elsewhere in the county.
Ross Moore Law is a BBB-accredited personal injury law firm founded in 2012 by Attorney Ross Moore II, a seven-consecutive-year Georgia Super Lawyers Rising Stars honoree. The firm represents car accident victims, truck accident survivors, motorcycle riders, and other injury clients throughout Decatur, DeKalb County, Metro Atlanta, and Nashville, Tennessee, and handles cases on a contingency fee basis.
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For more information about Ross Moore Law, contact the company here:
Ross Moore Law
Ross Moore Law
7068907541
info@rossmoorelaw.com
309 North Highland Avenue Northeast A, Atlanta, GA 30307
