The southbound lanes of Ga. 400 in Sandy Springs have reopened following the second fatal wrong-way driver crash on the highway in as many weeks.
The two-vehicle wreck happened around 3:30 a.m. on Ga. 400 southbound between Holcomb Bridge and Northridge roads.
Sandy Springs police spokesman Steve Rose said Carlyn Emily Royball, 22, of Alpharetta, was driving northbound in the southbound lanes when she struck a sport utility vehicle head-on.
The SUV driver, Kelly Stevens, said he was on his way in to work as morning show co-host on B98.5 FM when he encountered the wrong-way driver.
"I was in the left lane and all of a sudden, I just looked up and there were headlights and it was a wrong-way driver," said Stevens, who called in to the show from Grady Memorial Hospital. "It just happened so fast, there was just nothing I could do."
Stevens' vehicle rolled over in the collision, and he apparently suffered some broken bones.
Royball, a 2008 graduate of Milton High School, died.
Rose said investigators had not yet determined whether Royball got on going the wrong way at Northridge Road or further south.
All southbound lanes of Ga. 400 were blocked after the crash, but by 5 a.m., traffic was easing by the wreck scene in the right emergency lane. Authorities reopened all southbound lanes about 6 a.m.
Friday's crash happened just nine days after two people died in a wrong-way crash a few miles south on Ga. 400.
In the August 15 crash, Atlanta police said Frampere Ingle got on Ga. 400 going southbound in the northbound lanes around 4:15 a.m., then slammed head-on into a car driven by Eric Hanks.
Both Ingle and Hanks were killed.
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