Victims identified in fatal I-75 wreck survivor calls ‘worst thing I’d ever seen’

Tonya Moore was driving north toward Atlanta Sunday afternoon when an airborne car headed straight for her vehicle on Interstate 75.

“It flew up in the air. ... I feel like it was in the sky,” Moore said. “I tried to drive as fast as I can. I grabbed my passenger on the side and I told her, ‘I see it.’”

Moore initially had seen the car careen down an embankment, but didn’t realize it was coming back up on her side of the highway.

“Next thing I know, I saw the car in the air and it hit my car and then I tried to go in a safe zone at least 50 to a 100 yards up, and I know it hit other cars,” Moore said.

Michael Steven Schmitt, 31, of Riverview, Florida, veered from the southbound lanes into the guard rail near Rumble Road, then vaulted into northbound lanes, said Sgt. Lawson Bittick III, a spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

Schmitt was killed in the crash as his vehicle hit oncoming vehicles.

Cheryl Delaine Cook, 46, of Vestavia, Alabama, was killed while driving one of the cars Schmitt hit, Bittick said..

Schmitt’s vehicle hit a van and clipped Moore’s car, breaking her side-view mirror and clipping the driver’s side rear door and fender.

Moore is grateful she was able to avoid bearing the brunt of the crash.

“The worst thing I’d ever seen in my life,” she said. “I thank God that we’re here, because I know a lot of people’s lives were lost or were injured real bad.”

Monroe County investigators are trying to determine what caused Schmitt to leave the highway.

The accident investigation backed up traffic for miles in both directions Sunday afternoon.

Drivers detoured through Bolingbroke after all lanes were initially blocked by the wreckage.

This story was originally published April 3, 2017 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Victims identified in fatal I-75 wreck survivor calls ‘worst thing I’d ever seen’."