Authorities have identified a man suspected of driving a white van that led several Cobb Police officers on a chase before crashing head-on into a truck carrying a family of six.
Marcello Iacono, of Powder Springs, was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon after he was pulled from the crash, Georgia State Patrol spokeswoman Franka Young told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Iacono was taken to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital and multiple charges against him are pending. No further update was provided on Iacono’s condition, but he has not been booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
All six family members in the Ford F-250 pickup truck that was hit by the van were taken to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said. No further information has been released about their conditions.
The chase began when an off-duty Cobb police officer saw a Dodge van being driven the wrong way on Veterans Memorial Highway, according to spokesman Sgt. Wayne Delk. The officer turned around and radioed for assistance from other on-duty officers.
Officers in their patrol cars tried to stop the van as it weaved across all five travel lanes of Veterans Memorial Highway, Delk said. Because of the size of the van, PIT maneuvers attempted by the officers were not effective. Officers were able to slow the van some before it hit the F-250 in a head-on collision.
All lanes of Veterans Memorial Highway were closed around 2 p.m. following the crash near Davis Drive, according to Cobb police.
Video obtained from an auto parts store near the scene of the crash by Channel 2 Action News shows the van as it collided with the truck. The force of the collision was enough to lift the rear wheels of the van off the ground.
Iacono was unresponsive after the crash and officers began to give life-saving measures when he was taken from the van, according to Delk. He was revived when emergency medical personnel gave him Narcan, a prescription medication used to reverse opioid overdoses.
Veterans Memorial Highway was reopened to traffic about three hours after the crash, according to the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
About the Author
