A Franklin County man was seriously injured and two others were hurt in a wreck Sunday evening in Hollywood. Troopers say the crash was caused by an SUV driver who pulled into the path of a pickup towing a camper on GA 15/US 441.
The accident, which was initially reported to law enforcement as a head-on collision, happened around 5:47 p.m. on November 20 at the intersection with Talmadge Drive.
According to the state patrol, the driver of the Nissan, Garnett Pitts, 77, of Cornelia, failed to yield while turning left onto Talmadge from US 441 North. The Nissan struck the driver’s side of the Ford Super Duty truck. The impact caused the truck and camper to travel off the west shoulder of the highway into a ditch.
The pickup driver, 39-year-old Dustin McElreath of Canon, was trapped in the wreckage. First responders had to extricate him. Paramedics airlifted McElreath to Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) in Gainesville with serious injuries.
The wreck also injured Pitts and a passenger in the pickup, Lisa McElreath, 40, of Canon. EMS transported both of them to NGMC Gainesville with non-life-threatening injuries.
Traffic at the intersection was slowed for several hours as emergency crews and wreckers worked to clear the scene.
The state patrol charged Pitts with failure to yield while turning left.
