The Georgia State Patrol has released the name of the suspected drunk driver who troopers say caused a wreck and snarled traffic on GA 365 in Baldwin Tuesday night. The GSP says 65-year old James Randall Whiten of Anderson, South Carolina is charged with failure to yield right of way and open container. DUI charges are pending against him.
Trooper John Crawford says Whiten was attempting to turn left onto LC Turner Road from GA 365 southbound when he pulled into the path of a Toyota Tacoma Access pickup truck traveling north. The driver of the pickup, 23-year old Anna Brooke Carpenter of Toccoa, lost control of the truck. It overturned several times across the northbound lanes before coming to rest upside down in the median.
Whiten’s car traveled across both northbound lanes of the highway and landed in a ditch on LC Turner Road.
Whiten, Carpenter and two passengers in the truck — 29-year old Coley Anne Jones and 58-year old Sharon Elaine Hilton, both of Toccoa — were all taken to Habersham Medical Center with unspecified injuries.
The wreck shut down both northbound lanes of GA 365 in Baldwin for more than an hour.
