A veteran state trooper on Friday called the crash killing five university students a calamity that for him had no equal.
“I’ve seen some bad ones where people really got messed up but never that many (victims) at once,” Sgt. 1st Class Chris Nease told The Atlanta Journal Constitution Friday. “Last year we worked one where three young boys got killed in one with a fuel truck. They were brothers.”
He warned the accident investigation might take a half year — although most are completed within three months — because they’re complex and the nine investigative teams, which handled 373 cases last year, often are working more than one.
“These guys are real good, they are real smart and they are real thorough,” Nease told The AJC. “That way if it does go to court, they don’t go in there half cocked.”
Currently, the state patrol hasn’t decided about criminal charges involving the truck driver who initiated the early morning crash. Nease said there was no indication alcohol was involved.
That means for the case to be elevated to a felony vehicular homicide from a misdemeanor charge the investigation would have to determine the truck driver had been reckless, Nease said. Investigators would likely pull cellphone records to ensure the driver wasn’t engaged in a conversation at the time of the 5:45 a.m. crash Wednesday, Nease said.
The wreck Wednesday morning upped the death toll on Interstate 16 to eight this year, according to state transportation department figures. There were 56 other fatalities between 2010 and 2015.
Seven nursing students were riding in two cars from Georgia Southern University in Statesboro on the interstate to a Savannah hospital. Five died after a wreck involving both their cars that Georgia State Patrol says was initiated by a truck driven by John Wayne Johnson, 55, of Shreveport, La.
Those killed — Emily Clark, 20, of Powder Springs; Catherine "McKay" Pittman, 21, of Alpharetta; Morgan Bass, 20, of Leesburg; Abbie Deloach, 21, of Savannah; and Caitlyn Baggett, 21, of Millen — were being mourned on their school's Statesboro campus.
Megan Richards of Loganville and Brittnay McDaniel of Reidsville were injured in the wreck and hospitalized.
Two tractor-trailers and five passenger vehicles were involved in the wreck in Bryan County. The Georgia Southern students were traveling in a Toyota Corolla and a Ford Escape, and four of them died at the scene. Three others in the Escape were taken to a hospital, where the fifth student died, according to police.
Investigators believe one tractor-trailer plowed into an SUV, then rolled over a small passenger car that burst into flames. The truck came to a halt after slamming into the back of a tanker.
Federal inspectors had flagged the company employing Johnson, Total Transportation of Mississippi, noting it for 85 accidents — 27 with injuries — in 24 months, according to a Department of Transportation report. It's drivers had 266 unsafe driving violations, including 107 for speeding and 45 for failing to obey a traffic-control device and were cited in four of the accidents.
Its driver safety record was worse than 90 percent of comparable trucking companies, denoted a report by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“It has been cited with one or more serious violations within the past 12 months during an investigation,” the report said. “Therefore, this carrier may be prioritized for an intervention action and roadside inspection.”
The top prosecutor for Bryan County, where the crash occurred about 20 miles west of Savannah, told The Associated Press Thursday he’ll base his decision on whether to seek criminal charges on the findings of State Patrol investigators.
Staff writer Andria Simmons contributed to this article.
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