Holiday traffic accidents have claimed the lives of at least 11 people in Georgia since Wednesday evening, one of which claimed the life of a Carlton resident in Dawson County Friday morning, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

Timothy Brian Pettyjohn, 19, of Carlton, died after the 1996 Geo Tracker he was driving hit a tree shortly before 7 a.m. Friday, according to an operator at the state patrol post in Cumming.

Pettyjohn’s wreck on Shoal Creek Road is one of 1,431 crashes across the state that have resulted in 369 injuries and 11 deaths since the Christmas holiday traffic period began Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Public safety officials estimate eight more people will die on Georgia’s roads by Sunday.

The majority of the fatalities this holiday period have occurred in the metropolitan Atlanta area, with two occurring in DeKalb County and one each in Conyers and Villa Rica and Clayton County.

The state’s department of public safety updates its Web site with collision statistics every six hours during the holiday traffic period, which began at 6 p.m. Wednesday and ends at midnight Sunday.

Last year, 18 people died and 1,158 were injured in traffic accidents across the state during the Christmas traffic period, according to statistics on the state patrol’s Web site.