An 8-year-old child who was in critical condition Friday morning after a crash on I-85 in Gwinnett County shut down lanes for hours Thursday night is expected to survive.

A woman driving a Chevrolet Tahoe veered off the interstate and into a grassy median, according to a DeKalb police report. Her car, curving back onto the interstate, then flipped and hit a tractor-trailer.

Debris from the crash littered northbound lanes on I-85 near I-985.

Peter Pornsopone, a driver who witnessed the accident, told Channel 2 Action News he ran down the highway and heard the woman say, “Check for my baby.”

The child was flown to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and the child’s mother was taken to Northeast Georgia Hospital with non-life threatening injures.

Cpl. Deon Washington, a spokesman for Gwinnett County police, said a decision regarding charges in the accident is still under investigation.

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Austin Walters died from an overdose in 2021 after taking a Xanax pill laced with fentanyl, his father said. A new law named after Austin and aimed at preventing deaths from fentanyl has resulted in its first convictions in Georgia, prosecutors said. (Family photo)

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