UPDATE: Authorities have released a combined photo of the vehicle and trailer believed to be involved in the hit-and-run death of an Alpharetta man on the side of I-75 on Monday.
Anyone with information on the vehicle, trailer, or driver is asked to call the Georgia State Patrol at the Newnan Communications Center at 770-254-7201 or the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office.
Original Story:
An Alpharetta man was killed Monday while changing a tire on Interstate 75 southbound in Lamar County.
According to the Georgia State Patrol, 53-year-old Brian Edward Durst was struck about 12:50 p.m. by a tire that came from a utility trailer that passed him as he worked on his car. The vehicle pulling the trailer did not stop and the state patrol is looking for it, the trailer, and the driver involved in the incident.
Durst and his vehicle were in the emergency lane at mile marker 198, and troopers believe the tire came from a two-axle utility, boat, horse, or box trailer.
When reached by phone Monday night, a tearful Ginny Durst said her husband of more than 23 years was to spend the week in Florida on business.
“He was a bank executive,” she said. “He left the house about a quarter to 10, and now he’s dead. How does this happen?”
Lori Whitfield, a friend of the family, said Brian Durst was an avid racquetball player and he played often at a gym in Alpharetta.
Whitfield said she was told Durst’s leg was severely damaged by the tire. He was able to give a woman who stopped to help his wife’s name and phone number. The woman, who Ginny Durst described as “an angel,” told her what was going on at the scene.
Ginny Durst said her husband was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where she had been for a large part of the afternoon and evening.
“I am dying inside,” she said through tears. “For so long it has just been me and my husband. I don’t know what I am going to do.”
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