Fifteen people have died in automobile and motorcycle crashes in Bibb County this year

A pair of deadly weekend wrecks — one that claimed the life of an Atlanta-area motorcyclist and another that killed a Warner Robins woman — saw the 2022 death toll on Macon roadways rise to 15 victims.

The Bibb County coroner, who keeps track of traffic-death statistics, said Monday that eight more people, pedestrians, have been killed this year when they were struck by automobiles.

The traffic deaths here over the weekend that involved motorists happened on Friday and Saturday.

Friday evening, Leigh Anne Hise, of Warner Robins, an office assistant at the Townsend School of Music at Mercer University, died when her car veered into the path of a panel truck on Georgia Highway 247.

The crash happened in southern Bibb County, just north of Middle Georgia Regional Airport, near the highway’s intersection at Rex Elder Boulevard, a thoroughfare named for the airport’s longtime manager who died in 2011.

Hise, 39, who according to the Mercer University website had duties that included managing reservations for the school’s renowned Neva Langley Fickling Hall, crashed at about 5:30 p.m.

Sheriff’s officials said in a statement that Hise was headed south when her car crossed into the four-lane highway’s northbound side and collided with a panel truck. She died at the scene.

Saturday’s fatal wreck happened at about 7:45 p.m. on Riverside Drive, between Lee Road and King Alfred Drive, where Riverside parallels Interstate 75 near the Riverview Road overpass.

Bibb sheriff’s officials said the driver of a southbound motorcycle was killed when he struck a car.

According to a sheriff’s statement, “the motorcyclist let go of the motorcycle and then slid into the northbound lanes ... (and) was struck by a second vehicle.”

The victim, Quade Raymond Cabral, 26, of Marietta, died at the scene.

Cabral, according to his Facebook page, had attended Middle Georgia State University and worked for a Macon motorcycle shop.