Two Macon men killed in separate hit-and-run collisions overnight in Bibb County

Two Maconites were killed in hit-and-runs overnight, the latest in a growing and grim total of pedestrian deaths in Bibb County.

Lee Tukes, 61, was fatally hit just before midnight near the intersection of Eisenhower Parkway and C Street near Macon’s Alphabet City.

According to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, witnesses said Tukes was walking across the westbound lanes of Eisenhower when he was hit by someone driving a white vehicle, possibly a Chevrolet Camaro. The driver did not stop.

Tukes was then hit by a second vehicle, although that driver stopped.

The second fatal hit-and-run was reported around 7 a.m. Saturday. Robert Eugene Flowers, 61, was found dead on a sidewalk on Mercer University Drive across from Dexter Avenue. Investigators believe he was the victim of a hit-and-run.

Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones provided identifications for both Tukes and Flowers to the Telegraph. The two pedestrian deaths are the seventh and eighth in Macon this year.

The Center for Collaborative Journalism’s Laura Corley reported last month that the Macon-Bibb County Pedestrian Safety Review Board has made efforts to provide training on group walking audits for Maconites to identify safety concerns, but improving safety on some of the deadliest roads — including Eisenhower Parkway — in the county is up to the Georgia Department of Transportation.

The Pedestrian Safety Review Board, created in 2015 and tasked with reviewing pedestrian deaths and making safety recommendations to the county, has struggled to even track the number of deaths, Corley reported.

Both fatal collisions are under investigation. Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact the Bibb Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500 or the Macon Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.