A driver attempting to run from state troopers and his front-seat passenger died after the driver began traveling the wrong way on I-85 and crashed head-on into another car overnight in DeKalb County, according to Georgia State Patrol.
Two other passengers in the incident were hurt.
The chase began when state troopers tried to pull over a 2002 Saturn SL with three people inside, but the driver refused to stop, Georgia State Patrol Sgt. Stacey Collins told Channel 2 Action News.
At some point, the vehicle traveling on Clairmont Road got onto the ramp for I-85 south.
“Near the top of the ramp,” Collins said, “the trooper executed a PIT maneuver,” a tactic that essentially involves bumping a vehicle in an attempt to stop it.
The Saturn stopped, partially on the ramp and also in the first lane of southbound I-85, the GSP said. The trooper exited his patrol car and ordered the driver to put up his hands. The driver briefly complied.
“Then the driver of the Saturn fled that scene and drove the wrong way on I-85 southbound,” Collins said. “So he drove northbound in the southbound lanes.”
The trooper did not follow the Saturn, the GSP said. However, the trooper drove down the ramp and kept track of the Saturn from the northbound lanes, the agency said.
The trooper later spotted the Saturn, which had crashed head-on into a black 2012 Infiniti G37. The woman driving the Infiniti — Lisa Jackson, 52, of Alpharetta — sustained only minor injuries and was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, according to the Georgia State Patrol.
But the passenger in the back seat of the Saturn was in critical condition early Friday at Grady Memorial Hospital, where she was being treated for serious head injuries.
Traffic was shutdown temporarily Thursday night near Clairmont Road, according to Channel 2.
No other details were released.
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