Deadly Accident Shuts Down I-95

One person is dead after colliding head on with a tractor trailer on Interstate-95 It happened before dark in the northbound lanes of I-95 about a half mile south of exit 58, which goes to Highways 57 and 99.
 
News 3’s Randi Hempel was at the scene where traffic was really backed up and re-routed.

I received text messages from a former WSAV employee telling me how she was re-routed to highway 17, a two lane road which had thousands of cars trying to travel north.  She said it was aweful, after 8:30 p.m., they’d already been stuck in traffic for more than two hours and still weren’t back to the main road.

This is the scene of the deadly accident that shut down the northbound lanes of I-95 just south of exit 58 in McIntosh County Friday evening.

It all began with a 911 call before the wreck.

“The driver was using both lanes of travel on 95 south and was speeding up and slowing down.  We’re not sure what the problem was,” explains Sr./Tpr. Harry Middleton with the Georgia State Patrol.

Senior trooper Harry Middleton says they were on their way to locate the vehicle when the accident happened.

Officials say the driver went through the construction barrels, across the median which is under construction, and began traveling south on the northbound lane that’s when she was hit head on by a tractor trailer.

Clearing the accident takes longer than expected with this wreck because officials had to wait on the Georgia Department of Transportation to clear all of the transmission fluid that leaked on the road.

The scene causes traffic traveling south to get backed up; because everyone is slowing down hoping to catch a glimpse of what happened, leading to several other accidents.

“They’re just trying to see what’s going on, being nosey, it’s human nature I guess to look and see what’s going on and the biggest thing is to keep enough distance between you and the vehicle in front of you and maintain a safe distance and just try not to cause another accident cause it really hinders us in investigating the accidents that we’re working on,” advises Middleton.
   
The driver of the tractor trailer is complaining of his legs being sore.  Officials say there are no visible injuries.

A third vehicle was damaged by debris but nobody in that car was injured.
 
Officials haven’t released the name of the woman who died because they have to notify her family.

Of course, we’ll continue to follow up on this story.

UPDATE 8:05:  Georgia Department of Transportation tells us… the female driver of a green buick was driving erradically in the southbound lanes of I 95, crossing into both lanes of traffic, speeding up & slowing down.  A witness called 911, that’s when troopers dispatched to the area.  Before they arrived, the driver of the buick crossed through the construction barrels across the median, which is even because of construction, & began traveling south in the northbound lane.  That’s when she was hit by a tractor trailer traveling north.
The driver of the buick died & the driver of the truck is shaken up & complaining of aches.
A third car was damaged by debris, no injuries.
G-DOT has to clean up a lot of transmission fluid spilled on the road & crews are still working to clear the scene.
Georgia State Patrol officials are asking folks to pay attention to where they’re driving because several other accidents have been caused because of similar situations.

I-95 Northbound is closed and Southbound is moving slow after an accident involving a tractor trailer and a sedan near milemarker 58.
Georgia State Patrol says there is a fatal accident.  Firfighters and Georgia Department of Transportation are on the scene.
News 3’s Randi Hempel is also on the scene.
She says a driver just pulled over to ask her to find an officer because a car hit a barricade barrel, which spun off and hit a motorcyclist and knocked him off of the bike in the southbound lane.
Avoid the area!  Officials now working on both accidents.
Keep checking for updates from Randi!