Winter turns Atlanta’s busiest interchange into a crash hotspot where commercial trucks and holiday traffic collide under hazardous conditions.
What’s Happening: A new national study from fleet tracking company Samsara shows Atlanta’s Spaghetti Junction experiences a 150% jump in commercial crash rates during winter months compared to fall. The interchange of I-85 and I-285 ranks 13th nationwide for winter crash rate increases.
What’s Important: The Tom Moreland Interchange, also known as Spaghetti Junction, handles 300,000 vehicles daily through 14 bridges and five levels of ramps. Winter conditions make those complex merges and lane changes even more dangerous as temperatures drop and darkness arrives earlier.
Between the Lines: Georgia drivers face particular risk during the afternoon and evening commute windows, which account for nearly half of all winter crashes nationally. The study found crash rates spike 13% during Thanksgiving week when commercial fleets resume operations just as holiday travelers flood the roads.
The Big Picture: The national study examined commercial fleet data from 2022 to 2025 and found winter crash rates climb 7% per million miles driven compared to other seasons. States with rapid temperature changes and high-speed freight corridors see the sharpest increases. Ice formation, reduced visibility, and the mix of passenger vehicles with heavy trucks create dangerous conditions that can turn minor mistakes into multi-vehicle pileups. Georgia ranked fifth nationally for traffic fatality rates in the first half of 2024, with 1.08 roadway deaths per 100 million miles traveled.
The Sources: Samsara Connected Operations Platform data analysis, Georgia Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
B.T. Clark
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
