GAINESVILLE – A fatal wreck on Thompson Bridge Road (State Route 60) just north of the bridge crossing the Chattahoochee River Saturday morning closed the southbound lanes of the busy thoroughfare for nearly two hours.
Gainesville Fire Division Chief Keith Smith said the rollover wreck resulted in one individual being transported to the Northeast Georgia Medical Center in critical condition.
Gainesville Police was handling the investigation which included interviewing several witnesses, one of whom was Access WDUN’s Joe Kelly.
Kelly said he was on his way to our Thompson Bridge Road studios when, “a vehicle passed me at an extremely high rate of speed.”
Kelly added, “The car continued until it topped the hill just before the bridge where there was a chicken truck and other cars, in other words: congestion.”
“The car then swerved, lost control, flipped multiple times,” Kelly continued. “When it finally came to rest it was sitting on the left guard rail in the left lane, with the driver ejected and (lying) in the right lane on the bridge itself.”
Kelly said a Hall County paramedic, who also saw the accident, joined by a third unidentified man, began CPR on the victim.
Kelly says a 17-year-old unidentified man then approached the scene from his white pickup truck that had stopped just past the injured motorist, saying he had been unable to avoid the motorist as he was ejected from his vehicle and ran over him with his truck.
Gainesville Police spokesman Sgt. Kevin Holbrook said officers worked to reroute traffic from during the shutdown of the road.
Holbrook later reported that the victim succombed to his injuries while at the hospital. His name is being withheld pending notification of family members.
The highway was re-opened to traffic around 11:15 a.m.
