A 22-year-old man was killed when a tractor-trailer collided with three cars on Camp Creek Parkway in south Fulton County, the latest in a string of deadly incidents on the busy thoroughfare.
The crash happened just after 11:30 p.m. Monday at the intersection of Camp Creek Parkway and Butner Road.
Fulton County police spokeswoman Melissa Parker said witnesses told investigators that a tractor-trailer that was eastbound on Camp Creek Parkway ran a red light and struck a Toyota Solara that was northbound on Butner Road.
“After initial impact, the tractor-trailer then jackknifed into the opposing westbound left lane of travel, striking a Nissan Altima head-on,” Parker said in an e-mail. “The tractor-trailer, before coming to rest, rolled over onto a Toyota Camry that was also traveling westbound on Camp Creek Parkway.”
Parker said the driver of the Solara, identified Tuesday as Shomari Kefentse, of College Park, died at the scene.
The female driver of the Altima was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with serious injuries, while the male truck driver was taken to Grady with non-life-threatening injuries. The Camry driver sustained superficial injuries and refused treatment, Parker said.
The wreck was at least the fifth fatal incident on Camp Creek Parkway this year, and has led some who live and work in the area to say enough is enough.
“You can drive up there now and see debris from an accident,” Courtney Olivari, who owns a cake shop nearby, told Channel 2 Action News.
She said she often sees drivers speeding through the area, and that wrecks are a common sight at the intersection.
On Aug. 31, a trucker died when his tractor-trailer ran off the roadway in a curve near Merk Road, struck a large cement pole and caught fire.
In March, a Sandtown Middle School teacher died in a collision with a tractor-trailer on Camp Creek Parkway near Campbellton Road, about three miles west of where Monday night’s wreck occurred.
In February, a 24-year-old man crossing Camp Creek near Fulton Industrial Boulevard was killed after being hit by several vehicles.
The road, which becomes Thornton Road after it crosses into Cobb County, was also the scene of a wreck in July involving a tractor-trailer in which two women died and four people were injured.
Monday’s wreck happened a short distance from the site of an Easter Sunday 2009 crash that killed five people. Investigators said that in that wreck, a BMW driven by Aimee Michael swerved out of control, colliding with a Mercedes and sending the Mercedes into the path of an oncoming Volkswagen.
Michael fled the scene and, with the help of her mother, secretly had the BMW repaired. In late 2010, Michael was convicted on five counts of vehicular homicide, six counts of hit-and-run and one count of tampering with evidence and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Michael’s mother, Sheila, was sentenced to eight years in prison for her efforts to cover up her daughter’s involvement in the crash.
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