A Gwinnett County elementary school teacher has been identified as the driver killed in a Monday morning crash near Lilburn.
Gwinnett police spokeswoman Cpl. Michele Pihera said 41-year-old Nichole Riley, a Snellville resident and teacher at Lawrenceville’s Alford Elementary School, was driving her red Mazda north on Hewatt Road when her vehicle “crossed the double yellow lines” and collided with a southbound pickup truck.
Riley died at the scene, which was near the intersection of Hewatt and Martin Nash roads. The driver of the truck, whose identity was not released, was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Pihera said.
There were no other passengers in either vehicle. The crash was reported shortly after 7 a.m.
Police listed “failure to maintain lane” as a contributing factor to the crash.
Riley was in her first year at Alford Elementary School and taught a class of autistic students. The school called parents in Riley’s class Monday morning to alert them about the incident, Gwinnett County Public Schools spokeswoman Sloan Roach said, and parents were asked how they wanted to share the news about Riley’s death.
A grief counselor will be at the school, Roach said.
“This type of situation is tragic and hard on the school and hard on the students,” she said.
—Staff writer Alexis Stevens contributed to this report.
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