An 18-year-old driver was killed and his passenger was injured late Monday night when a tractor-trailer smashed into their car, resulting in both vehicles bursting into flames, authorities said.
Jeremy Matthew Periera, of West Newbury, Massachusetts, was pronounced dead at the scene, and the passenger riding with him was taken to a hospital with severe burns, the Georgia State Patrol said in a statement.
Periera had been driving a 2014 Nissan 370Z east on Ga. 20 in Bartow County about 10 p.m., according to GSP spokesman Lt. Mark Riley. For reasons that aren’t clear, a tractor-trailer traveling in the opposite direction crossed the grass median and crashed into the front of the Nissan.
After the impact, the GSP said the Nissan “came to an uncontrolled rest” and caught on fire.
The tractor-trailer kept going west in the eastbound lanes before it slid off the road and flipped over, Riley said. The truck then went down an embankment, hitting several trees, before it also caught on fire.
Both the tractor-trailer’s driver and the Nissan’s passenger were taken to Floyd Medical Center.
It’s not clear if charges are anticipated in the fatal crash, which remains under investigation.
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