8th victim found in wreckage of I-85 crash in NE Georgia, coroner says
The wreckage on I-85 was horrific. One van was engulfed and five other vehicles including a semitrailer were involved, creating a chaotic scene Monday in northeast Georgia.
Investigators initially believed seven people traveling in one van were killed, according to the Georgia State Patrol.
But an eighth victim was later recovered, Jackson County Coroner David Whitfield told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday. That victim had been overlooked in the destruction left behind, Whitfield said.
In nearly four decades as the county’s coroner, Whitfield said it’s the worst wreck he has seen. All eight people who died are believed to be part of the same Gwinnett County family.
“I have not seen this amount of deaths in one wreck,” Whitfield said.
Three adults and five children, ranging in age from 2 to 16, were killed, Whitfield said. Their surviving relatives have been notified, but the victims’ names won’t be released until all are positively identified. One of the adults killed was pregnant, Whitfield said.
The chain-reaction crash remained under investigation Tuesday. It is not clear if any charges are expected.
While authorities worked to determine how it happened, members of a metro Atlanta pet rescue group were grateful to be alive after their van was one of six vehicles involved.
The wreck happened shortly after 4 p.m. in Jackson County just south of Exit 147, according to the State Patrol. The area is about 20 miles north of Athens and is the exit for Love’s Travel Stop, which is just a few miles from the Tanger Outlets in Commerce.
Investigators said a tractor-trailer struck the back of a Dodge van, causing the van to go up in flames, the State Patrol said. All of the occupants of the van died at the scene.
The metro Atlanta-based pet rescue group, Furkids Animal Rescue and Shelters, said its van was transporting 37 cats to a shelter in Vermont. The van’s driver had minor injuries, Samantha Shelton, the rescue’s CEO and founder, told the AJC.
“I’m just so sad. I’m so sad that … people lost their lives (Monday),” Shelton said. “The idea that (they) hit our van, and they all perished … it’s just a scenario I would never have thought would have happened, that we would be associated with loss of life like that. We are on the road saving lives.”
As of Tuesday, 35 cats had been found. The remaining two — an orange male named Birch and a gray-and-white female named Strawberry Shortcake, both less than 6 months old — were seen escaping through the van’s shattered windows and running across the interstate, Shelton said.
The rescue group was working with local authorities to search for the kittens in the surrounding woods.
“It’s going to be challenging, but we’re not going to forget them,” Shelton said.
Of the recovered cats, Shelton said two are hospitalized at the University of Georgia, with one of them in critical condition. They had been wedged into the wreckage, requiring the van to be taken apart piece by piece to get them out.
The Love’s truck stop allowed the group to use one of its showers to triage the cats, Shelton said, and they are being evaluated again by the rescue’s in-house veterinarian. Internal bleeding is the main concern.
Once the cats are cleared, they will likely stay with their foster homes or be adopted locally rather than continuing the trip to Vermont, she said. The group will also need to replace its van.
The incident closed I-85 for several hours, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. Lanes started to reopen shortly after 8 p.m.
