The Georgia State Patrol has released new details of a tractor trailer accident that injured three people July 11 in Tallulah Falls.
According to the accident report, 46-year-old John Russell Roush of Semmes, Alabama, was driving a 2011 Volvo Semi southbound on US 441/GA 15 when he lost control in a curve. The truck traveled into the turn lane. The trailer slid sideways into the northbound lanes. Both overturned.
As the trailer overturned it struck a guardrail, the front of a Ford F-150 pickup truck, and the left sides of a 2009 Toyota Camry and 2006 Toyota Highlander.
The impact caused the F-150 to run into the guardrail.
The driver of the pickup, 74-year-old Michael W. Ford and his passenger, 66-year-old Donna Lee Ford, both of Dillard, were injured in the wreck. They were taken by ambulance to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville with non-incapacitating injuries.
Roush sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene. He’s charged with failure to maintain lane.
No other injuries were reported.
Eyewitness to the crash
Michelle Halpern owns The Artist Kava House Grill which sits just above the accident site. She was in the parking lot when the truck rolled over.
“First you heard it – a very, very loud screech. You could tell that it was a truck ready to go over. We just looked over there and it toppled over,” Halpern says. She says the truck skidded approximately 100 yards. “Then I could see the man trapped inside when it came to a stop.”
Halpern and another bystander helped the truck driver get out through the windshield. It was at that point she says she saw the pickup truck “squashed” between the tractor trailer and guardrail.
A portion of US 441/GA 15 was blocked for several hours as crews worked to clear the scene.
A dangerous curve
The accident happened in a steep curve that’s a well-known trouble spot for truck rollover accidents. Tuesday’s accident marks the third time a tractor trailer has overturned in that curve in just the past year.
Amber Needles lives in Tallulah Falls and has seen it before.
“It’s a very bad curve and the truckers need to slow down, that’s why the sign is up there,” Needles says, referring to a posted speed limit sign that warns trucks to slow down as they enter the curve.
The sign shows a warning picture of a truck tipping over.
“They’ve got to slow down because that curve is no joke with them being top heavy,” Needles says emphatically. “Cars, trucks, regular vehicles need to slow down in this curve. It is very dangerous.”
As she watches four tow trucks pull vehicles away from the scene Needles adds, “Everybody that walked away today is very, very blessed.”
