A bright 22-year-old woman was slowly working her way to finishing an electrical engineering degree from Georgia Tech when she was killed Sunday morning, wedged underneath a tractor-trailer after a crash in northwest Atlanta, officials said.
“Our family is devastated,” Alahna Smith’s mother, Electra Branch, wrote in a GoFundMe campaign. “She worked hard and played hard, and loved her family more than anything.”
Smith was trapped inside her Ford Escape after crashing into the truck in the 2300 block of Marietta Boulevard about 4:30 a.m., Atlanta police said. Her vehicle was stuck underneath the tractor-trailer, but authorities did not say how the wreck occurred or if anyone was charged.
“Firefighters quickly discovered the female driver of the SUV had no pulse and was pronounced deceased at the scene,” police said. “A wrecker was used to lift the trailer to dislodge the SUV and extract the patient.”
According to an article on the college’s website, Smith was part of the 2018 cohort of the Georgia Tech Clark Scholars Program. It financially supports students who display strong academic and leadership potential in engineering.
At the time of the crash, a Georgia Tech spokesman said Smith was not currently enrolled in the college but had been taking classes since 2018 and was working toward her degree.
Multiple friends and family members left heartfelt comments to Smith’s mother on the GoFundMe page, which has raised more than $34,000 for the woman’s funeral.
“Alahna was a beautiful person. I know this because she came from a beautiful family. I am so very sorry that this has happened and you now have to experience life without her. We are all grieving with you,” a family friend commented.
