If you were having a bad day and Julieanna Shedrawy walked into the room with her bright smile, things would change.
“She wanted everyone to be happy,” her father, Cronis Aleksinas, said.
That is why family, neighbors, former colleagues and friends are having a hard time coming to terms with Shedrawy’s tragic death, which occurred at the height of Thursday morning’s commute on Ga. 400 in Sandy Springs.
Just before 8 a.m., police said a pickup truck traveling north on Ga. 400 at Pitts Road lost a wheel and tire.
The wheel went over the wall, landed on the windshield of her Nissan on the other side of the highway and killed her, according to police.
Shedrawy, a 48-year-old married mother of two, was the only person in the Nissan. Like thousands of other commuters, she was headed to work, Alexsinas said. According to her Facebook page, Shedrawy was a sales coordinator at Atlanta Fixture & Sales Co. Inc.
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
At Stack Kitchen, where Shedrawy used to work, friend Brenda George and others said they were stunned.
“I thought, ‘No. No. It couldn’t be,’” she told Channel 2 Action News.
“We’re just all obviously in shock,” Michael Whitlow, another friend, said. “No words to describe.”
Credit: Family photo via Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Family photo via Channel 2 Action News
Investigators believe the wheel came off the truck due to a mechanical failure, Sandy Springs police Sgt. Sam Worsham said.
Police are still working to determine what caused the mechanical failure.
The truck driver, who stayed on the scene hours after the freak accident, said he feels bad for Shedrawy’s family and doesn’t know how the accident could have happened.
“I was on the way to my job,” Jorge Herrera told Channel 2. “I’m not drunk. I’m not driving fast. It was like a normal (day) trying to get to my job.”
Herrara said he did not have any issues with the truck before Thursday.
“I drove this truck to North Carolina on Saturday,” he said. “I don't have weight. I don't have equipment."
Darrell Thompson, Shedrawy’s neighbor, told Channel 2 that the community will support her husband and daughters. The oldest girl is 17. The youngest is 10.
“You wish that there was some way to reverse it,” Thompson said.
Shedrawy’s father said he’s comforted knowing his daughter was the type of woman who would go out of her way to help others as was the case when a friend committed suicide two years ago.
Shedrawy was “always pulling for the kids,” and would even surprise them for lunch, he said.
“She’s touched everybody’s life,” Alexsinas said. “And they never forgot her.”
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