DALTON, Ga. — A witness is recounting the moments she saw a chase end with a wrong-way driver crashing into a tractor-trailer on Interstate 75. Three people died in the crash.
“It’s very scary because you know there’s so many people that are on that interstate at that time,” Stephanie Silvani told Channel 2’s ABC affiliate WTVC.
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The crash happened Thursday morning around 10:30 a.m. near mile marker 336. The Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office said deputies tried to stop a driver in a blue 2025 Hyundai Elantra that drove past them at a high rate of speed.
Sheriff Darren Pierce says that driver cut across the median and began driving in the wrong direction.
“We then took off after the vehicle trying to catch up to it. And he hit a tractor trailer head on," Pierce told the news station.
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The suspect and two passengers in the car died. Silvani said she saw the blue car hit a tan GMC moments before crashing with the semi truck.
“And when he hit that front corner, it basically ricocheted him into the semi truck. And it almost like ran over them," she said.
Silvani saw the semi truck driver make it out of the wreckage.
“We get out and run towards the semi truck because it was on fire and the person had not got out yet,” she said. “But the police officer got to him first, so they they jumped out of the driver’s seat.”
Georgia State Patrol said three other people were taken to Hamilton Medical with minor injuries.
Pierce said his office doesn’t know why the driver wouldn’t stop.
“You’re putting innocent civilians at risk, and that’s something we’re not going to tolerate here,” he said.
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