A Georgia State Patrol trooper was fired Friday after investigators determined he was driving 91 mph five seconds before a crash that killed two Paulding County teenagers.
Trooper Anthony J. Scott, 26, was northbound on U.S. 27 in Carroll County late Saturday night and had slowed to 68 mph when he struck a 2005 Nissan Sentra attempting a left turn onto Holly Springs Road, investigators said. The posted speed limit in the area is 55 mph.
“At the time of the wreck, he was on no kind of emergency call, en route to no accident, not trying to stop a vehicle,” Capt. Mark Perry told Channel 2 Action News. “Turns out he was running at a high rate of speed through this intersection in a territory that’s he’s familiar with and should have known the dangers that potentially exist.”
Four teenagers were inside the Nissan, which was struck on the right side, and the GSP initially said the Nissan’s driver failed to yield. Additional investigation revealed Scott’s excessive speed was also a contributing factor in the fatal wreck, Perry said Friday.
The GSP will turn over its findings to the District Attorney of the Coweta Judicial Circuit for review, Perry said.
Both backseat passengers died at the scene of the crash. Kylie Hope Lindsey, 17, and Isabella Alise Chinchilla, 16, were students at South Paulding High School. Two others — Dillon Lewis Wall, 18, and Benjamin Alan Finken, 17, both of Douglasville — were injured and taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. Wall, the driver, has since been released from the hospital.
On Thursday, funerals were held for both Lindsey and Chinchilla at West Ridge Church in Dallas.
Scott, a former Marine who became a trooper in 2012, was on patrol but was not answering a call and did not have emergency lights on at the time of the crash. He was treated and released from Tanner Medical Center in Carrollton.
“He’s crushed. He’s devastated,” Perry said. “He regrets the action he took that night.”
Scott had been reprimanded twice before for minor wrecks, resulting in a verbal warning and written letter, Perry said.
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