Two people were killed Tuesday morning in a chain-reaction crash that brought the commute on I-75 to a halt through Cobb County.
The crash shut down the northbound lanes of the interstate near the South Marietta Parkway loop at about 5:45 a.m. and did not clear for four hours. The closure impacted traffic on every other major route out of the northwest suburbs, including I-285, which was gridlocked for much of the morning.
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
According to Marietta police, Eduarda Cristina Romano DaSilva, 21, of Marietta, and Victor Parra, 59, of Jonesboro, were outside their vehicles when they were killed. Romano DaSilva stopped to fix a flat tire on her Honda Civic, but police are still investigating how Parra came to exit his Toyota RAV4.
The shutdown dominated morning news reports, but for veteran WSB traffic reporter Ashley Frasca, it was personal. Frasca was on her way into the news studio early Tuesday when she spotted Romano DaSilva stalled on the left side of I-75 across the center median. According to police spokesman Officer Chuck McPhilamy, the woman was stopped in a shallow shoulder.
It was enough for Frasca, who keeps watch over Georgia Department of Transportation traffic cameras for her regular reports, to go looking for the woman in camera footage when she got to work. She wanted to make sure she was OK.
Credit: Ben Hendren for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Ben Hendren for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Frasca was watching when the Toyota came barreling through the dark stretch of interstate and hit the woman’s Honda, causing the SUV to spin out of control and come to rest facing the wrong direction on the interstate. She called 911 to report the wreck, and looked on in horror when Parra got out of his vehicle and was nailed by a red Chevrolet Silverado hauling a small trailer.
Romano DaSilva was also struck by the pickup, driven by 72-year-old Indiana resident David West, police said. West and his 74-year-old passenger were taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital with minor injuries.
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
“That’s the first time I’ve actually seen a crash happen in real time, nonetheless a person being hit and killed,” Frasca told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
There were no streetlights illuminated in the area at the time of the wreck, she said. Every one of the other vehicles involved was “flying right up to the crash scene,” she said, because it was too hard to see the pileup until it was too late to stop.
Frasca said she often sees drivers exit their vehicles in the aftermath of a collision, and it’s never a good idea. In her experience, most people hit and killed on the interstate were first involved in a wreck or had some other car trouble.
“It’s just not that important to check on the damage,” Frasca said. “It’s a scary 10, 15 minutes that you have to wait on police, but they have all the flashing lights and the equipment to keep you safe. It’s not worth your life.”
Police originally said five vehicles were involved in the crash but later determined the fourth and fifth cars drove through the accident scene afterward. The drivers of those vehicles, which sustained minor damage, fully cooperated with the investigation, police added.
The northbound lanes of I-75 reopened shortly before 10 a.m. when the crash investigation cleared.
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