Georgia · Atlanta · Traffic & Accidents

Morehouse College Accident on Westview Drive SW, Atlanta, GA: Car Overturns Near Spelman College Students

A car struck a light pole and overturned on the Morehouse College campus around 12:25 a.m. Friday along the 800 block of Westview Drive SW in Atlanta. A Morehouse student said it came within a few feet of two Spelman College students who were on foot.

By Nathan Saunders Published Aug. 21, 2026, 8:35 a.m. ET 5 min read As of 8:35 a.m. ET · Driver not identified · Occupants and injuries not released

What happened on Westview Drive SW at Morehouse College?

A car struck a light pole and overturned on the Morehouse College campus in southwest Atlanta early Friday, WSB-TV reported.

The accident happened around 12:25 a.m. Friday along the 800 block of Westview Drive SW, WSB-TV reported. The car sped through the campus before it hit the pole and flipped, according to the station, and it came close to students who were outside at the hour.

Channel 2 reporter Bryan Mims was on scene. Westview Drive SW is a city street, and this stretch of it runs through the Morehouse campus inside Fulton County.

The driver has not been identified, and no citation or charge has been announced.

What did Morehouse and Spelman students say they saw?

Morehouse student Raylon Ellis said the car narrowly missed two Spelman College students, WSB-TV reported.

“We did see two girls running from the side of the street here to get away from the car. They were this close from the car, from being hit by the car. So there really needs (something) to happen,” Ellis told WSB-TV.

Ellis said the accident illustrates what he described as a chronic issue on the streets through campus.

Ellis told WSB-TV: “There’s a problem with speeding on this campus, and so they need to put up signs or something that helps people to know we don’t need speeding on this campus, especially when there’s college students here.”

Kollin Bethea was eating at a table with friends when the car went past, WSB-TV reported. He said he heard screeching and saw sparks coming off one of the car’s tires.

Bethea told the station: “Just don’t speed. It’s a school zone. I’ve seen so many cars coming fast, weaving fast, and I just don’t know why. It’s not a raceway.”

No agency has stated how fast the car was going.

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What does Georgia law say about school zones and school-zone speed cameras?

Bethea called the block a school zone. In Georgia that phrase carries a specific enforcement meaning, separate from how a street feels to the people who walk it.

Automated enforcement in a school zone runs under O.C.G.A. 40-14-18. That section allows a speed limit inside a school zone to be enforced with photographically recorded images, and it fences the practice in tightly.

The images count only on a school day, only during the hours instructional classes are taking place plus the hour before classes are scheduled to begin and the hour after they conclude, and only where the speed was more than ten miles per hour over the limit.

Those enforcement windows are all tied to the school day. This accident is reported at roughly 12:25 in the morning, which sits outside every one of them regardless of how the block is designated.

What happens next, and which agency holds the accident report?

Westview Drive SW is a city street inside Atlanta, which places it in the Atlanta Police Department’s jurisdiction. A single-vehicle accident on a city street is worked by the department that patrols it, and the paperwork follows from there.

A Georgia accident report exists only after the investigating officer writes one and files it. Until that step is finished there is no document in existence to release, and an overnight accident can take days to move through it.

Once filed, the report is held by the agency that worked the scene. It is released in response to an open-records request made to that agency’s records unit, which for a street inside the city limits is the Atlanta Police Department’s central records section.

Why does an accident on this stretch put people on foot at risk?

Morehouse College and Spelman College sit alongside one another in southwest Atlanta, in the cluster of campuses that also includes Clark Atlanta University. Westview Drive SW runs through that cluster as an ordinary public street rather than an interior campus drive.

That is the geometry behind what the students described. A car that leaves the roadway on a campus block is not leaving it into a shoulder or a median; Ellis described two people running from the side of the street to get clear.

The hour matters as well. The accident is reported at roughly 12:25 in the morning, when Bethea and his friends were at a table outside.

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What other recent Atlanta accidents have involved people on foot?

Several recent accidents in the city have turned on the same collision between a vehicle and someone outside it. On the interstate, a man was killed on I-85 south near Metropolitan Parkway after being struck by multiple vehicles, closing lanes for hours.

In a separate incident on the northwest side, Akil Lateef Mayer, 34, was killed on I-75 near Howell Mill Road while running across the interstate. On the southwest side, a man was killed by a Norfolk Southern train on Murphy Avenue on an open stretch of track.

Each of those is a distinct incident at a different location and has no connection to the Morehouse campus accident. More coverage from the city is on our Atlanta page, and road incidents from across the state are collected on our Georgia traffic page.

What we don’t know yet

Frequently asked questions

What happened on the Morehouse College campus in Atlanta?
A car struck a light pole and overturned along the 800 block of Westview Drive SW around 12:25 a.m. Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, WSB-TV reported. A Morehouse student said the car narrowly missed two Spelman College students who were on foot.

Where on Westview Drive SW did the accident happen?
Along the 800 block of Westview Drive SW, a city street that runs through the Morehouse College campus in southwest Atlanta, inside Fulton County.

Was anyone hurt in the Morehouse College accident?
Atlanta police have not released any injury information, and the number of people in the car has not been released either.

Has the driver been identified or charged?
The driver has not been identified, and no citation or charge has been announced.

Is the 800 block of Westview Drive SW a school zone?
A student described the block that way. Whether it carries a school-zone designation under Georgia law has not been established, and no agency has addressed the question.

What does Georgia law say about speeding in a school zone?
O.C.G.A. 40-14-18 allows the speed limit inside a school zone to be enforced with photographically recorded images, but only on a school day, only while instructional classes are taking place plus the hour before they are scheduled to begin and the hour after they conclude, and only for speeds more than ten miles per hour over the limit. The penalty it creates is a civil monetary penalty mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle.

Which agency handles an accident on Westview Drive SW?
Westview Drive SW is a city street inside Atlanta, which places it in the Atlanta Police Department's jurisdiction. A Georgia accident report exists only once the investigating officer writes and files one, and it is then released in response to an open-records request made to that agency's records unit.