4 killed when Dodge Charger doing 169 mph crashes in woods on I-75 in Middle Georgia
Four young people were killed early Sunday when a car clocked at 169 mph later ran off the side of Interstate 75 near High Falls north of Forsyth and soon burst into flames, officials said.
The victims’ names and hometowns were being withheld Sunday afternoon, but Monroe County Sheriff Brad Freeman said the six people in the car, two of whom survived, ranged in age from 16 to 22.
At about 12:15 a.m., a Monroe sheriff’s deputy parked along the freeway’s northbound lanes near the Georgia Public Safety Training Center clocked a black Dodge Charger doing 102 mph, Freeman said.
The deputy wheeled onto the highway to catch up to the car, but by the time the deputy did, the car had already accelerated to 137 mph and pulled away. Another deputy further ahead soon clocked the streaking Dodge at 169 mph and then lost sight of it.
Freeman said that about nine miles after passing the first deputy, the car exited the interstate at High Falls and, speeding up the exit ramp, its driver apparently lost control and shot into a wood line on the east side of the freeway.
The deputies following the car weren’t sure where the car had gone until, moments later, a passerby spotted one of the people who’d been in the car walking near High Falls Road and dialed 911 to also report that the Dodge was on fire.
Freeman said two people in the car got out on their own and survived.
He said the car’s four other occupants — two of whom were pulled from the burning wreckage by deputies and one who was ejected and another person who was stuck in the car — died.
“It’s sad when young people lose their lives,” Freeman told The Telegraph, adding that it was especially so when it involves “poor choices.”
Deputies were said to have found three guns in the car along with 17 credit cards, but it was unclear what connection, if any, the items may have had to the crash.