Relatives in Georgia, El Salvador devastated by I-85 crash that killed 8
Nearly two decades ago, Maribel Ramírez left her home in El Salvador for a better life in the United States.
Later, she brought her brothers and a young daughter to her new homeland, where Ramírez gave birth to additional children and became a grandmother, her family told The Associated Press.
But now, relatives in Georgia and El Salvador are dealing with a devastating tragedy. Eight members of the family were killed Monday afternoon in a fiery crash on I-85 in northeast Georgia.
Ramírez, 42, and her five children, Justin, Andy, Natali, Evan and Kenia, who was three months pregnant, died in the wreck. Kenia’s husband, Darwin Ventura, and their child Kayle also died.
Investigators believe a semitrailer driver was distracted and trailed the family’s Dodge van too closely seconds before slamming into the back of it, according to the Georgia State Patrol. The impact started a chain-reaction crash involving six vehicles. The van was so destroyed that investigators initially believed there were only seven victims.
The truck driver, Kane Aaron Hammock of Gainesville, was arrested and charged with eight counts of second-degree vehicular homicide, second-degree feticide, following too closely, distracted driving and operating a vehicle without a current plate, according to the State Patrol. All of the charges are misdemeanors.
Bond for Hammock, 33, was set at $93,000, and he remained Thursday in the Jackson County jail.
A spokesperson for Clermont Trucking, where it is believed Hammock worked, had no comment Thursday. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Clermont Trucking has had 15 crashes since 2015.
The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating Monday’s wreck.
The Jackson County coroner said DNA testing was required to identify the victims, and those results are pending. But family members in Gwinnett County and El Salvador have identified those killed.
“It’s something painful that we’re living through,” Carmen Gavidia Ramírez, Maribel’s sister, told the AP in El Salvador. “I couldn’t believe it when they called us Monday night to tell us they had died. I still can’t believe it — it can’t be true, but it is.”
The family is hopeful their relatives can be buried in El Salvador, but the costs of transporting their remains is daunting, Carmen said. Some in the small community of Tepetitan have reached out with offers to help.
“But I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.
Back in metro Atlanta, Ventura’s mother told Channel 2 Action News on Wednesday she is heartbroken.
“It’s hard because we don’t know what to do. We are in shock still,” Eva Velasquez-Benitez said.
A GoFundMe page was created to help the survivors.
“We are devastated,” the fundraiser’s organizer wrote. “In these moments, there are truly no words to describe the pain that comes from the unexpected loss of our loved ones. We think not only about the memories made but those that were yet to come.
“What gives us consolation is that they are all now rejoicing in God’s loving arms and at peace,” the fundraiser states.
