A sheriff’s deputy caused a fiery crash that temporarily shut down a Hall County road and sent the official and two inmates to the hospital, the Georgia State Patrol said.
The crash, which involved a Whitfield County sheriff’s car and a Dodge pickup truck pulling a toy hauler camper, occurred at Clarks Bridge Road and Ga. 52. about 7:50 a.m. Monday, the GSP said in a statement.
Deputy Rosalia Pacheco-Hernandez, 23, was driving eastbound on Ga. 52 with Amanda Nicole Townsend, 33, of Tunnel Hill, and Hillary Marie Mchan, 30, of Dalton. Pacheco-Hernandez was taking Townsend and Mchan to Lee Arrendale Prison in Alto.
Steven and Renee Gallo, both 57, of Lakeworth, Fla., were traveling north on Ga. 284 in the pickup truck when the eastbound patrol car “failed to stop at a stop sign and struck the toy hauler camper that the Dodge was pulling,” according to the statement.
The camper disconnected from the Dodge and overturned on its right side, the GSP said. The patrol car caught fire after the collision.
Steven Gallo told Channel 2 Action News that officials scrambled to get the shackled inmates out of the patrol car once it caught fire.
“There was just a rush to get everybody away,” Gallo said.
The deputy and two inmates were taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
No one has been charged in connection with the crash.
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