Family suspects woman had seizure before Hall crash
The Hall County driver in a head-on wreck that killed her and four others was on medication for epilepsy and severe back pain, a family member said Wednesday.
But no one is sure if that is what caused Amanda Lynn Pardue to drive her Ford Explorer over a concrete median, into oncoming traffic and strike a tractor-trailer Monday morning on Ga. 11. No one inside the Explorer survived the crash. The tractor-trailer driver was treated at a local hospital and released.
Pardue had previously had seizures while driving, her cousin, Brandy Poole, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“She’d had epilepsy for about eight months,” Poole said. “There always had to be someone with her when she was driving. Her doctor felt like they had it under control.”
Pardue, 34, and her 8-year-old daughter, Kayleigh Lynn Emfinger, died at the scene, along with another adult and his grandson, according to police.Robbie Hollis, 53, and 13-year-old, Dalton Martin, family friends with Pardue, also died at the scene of the wreck.
Pardue’s youngest son, who would’ve turned 3 years old in July, was alive when he was pulled from the wreckage, according to troopers. But Eli Lamar Emfinger later died at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, Poole said.
No autopsies were conducted, Hall County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Nicole Bailes said Wednesday. But routine toxicology tests are pending, she said.
“GSP has sent the blood work in to the GBI,” Bailes said in an email to The AJC. “We have requested that it be expedited, however there are no guarantees. It typically takes roughly 8-12 weeks for that report.”
Pardue had recently bought her Explorer and was having mechanical issues, Poole said. Hollis, who had worked as a mechanic, was trying to help Pardue, and the family suspects the group of five may have been driving to an auto parts store at the time of the collision.
A joint funeral for Pardue and her two children will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday in the Wards Funeral Home chapel in Gainesville. Interment will follow at Hillside Gardens Cemetery. Pardue is survived by her fiance and two other children.
Funeral arrangements for Hollis and Martin have not yet been announced.
