Woman shot in leg driving down interstate has warning for drivers on metro Atlanta’s roads

ATLANTA — A young woman shot in the leg during a road rage incident is out of the hospital and recovering at home with her family by her side.

The woman, who asked only to be identified as Bridgette, 22, talked to Channel 2′s Michael Seiden about the terrifying moments she was driving down the interstate and was hit with a bullet.

Bridgette said she still feels the physical pain from her injury. Mentally, she is still trying to comprehend how something like this could’ve happened.

“Still a little bit of PTSD from the situation. But overall, I just feel strong and you feel lucky, blessed,” Bridgette said.

She told Seiden that she and her three friends became the victims of a road rage incident.

The 2020 Wright State University graduate, who has been working on the front lines as an emergency room nurse since the COVID-19 pandemic began, drove to Atlanta from Ohio this past weekend to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

She said they had just left a bar in Edgewood and was headed home along Interstate 75 North at around 1:30 a.m. Sunday when another driver started riding their tail.

“It got really close, his lights. Why is he so close to us? Why are his lights so bright?” is what Bridgette said was going through her head.

She said her friend honked and then changed lanes, but the other driver refused to stop and pulled into the lane next to them.

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That’s when someone in the car shot into theirs.

“All I know is I heard a boom, and I just felt a very bad burning sensation in my leg,” Bridgette said.

The bullet entered through the back passenger side of the car, striking Bridgette in the leg.

But it wasn’t until she got to the hospital that she saw where she had been hit.

“That bullet could have hit my chest, my arms, someone else anywhere. By luck, it just hit my leg,” Bridgette said.

But not every victim of road rage has been so lucky.

Since the beginning of 2021, Channel 2 Action News has reported on nearly a dozen road rage incidents on metro Atlanta highways and roads and, in some cases, they’ve turned deadly.

Just last week, Coweta County deputies arrested Deanthony Clark after they said he shot a woman in the back on Interstate 85. The woman survived, but police said she might never walk again.

Seiden is still working on getting the latest local and state numbers of road rage incidents but did find some national numbers that include Georgia drivers.

According to a new study conducted by the insurance website The Zebra, 66% of traffic fatalities were caused by aggressive driving and 37% of aggressive driving incidents involved a firearm.

A total of 12,610 injuries and 218 murders have been attributed to road rage over a seven-year period in the U.S.

“A lot of people out here have nothing to lose, so I always tell people it’s not that serious,” Bridgette said. “Ten seconds of angriness is not worth your life.”

Police are still searching for Bridgette’s shooter. Unfortunately, they didn’t get a great look at the shooter’s vehicle or face, but they’re hoping someone saw something and will contact police.

Man arrested after shooting another driver along I-85

Cox Media Group