A 22-month-old girl was killed and her mother is fighting for her life following a head-on crash last weekend with a man suspected of driving under the influence, officials said.
The three-vehicle wreck happened shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday on Ga. 41 near Haynes Road in Coweta County, according to a Georgia State Patrol incident report. Officials said Jose David Diaz, 30, of Austell, was driving north on the state highway when his Honda SUV entered the oncoming lane and collided with two cars going in the opposite direction.
According to the report, an SUV carrying six people was sideswiped after swerving out of the way, and no one inside was injured.
Diaz then collided with a Kia Forte driven by 21-year-old Jada Jackson. Jackson’s daughter, Samia Williams, was killed in the back seat, investigators said. The little girl would have turned 2 on Jan. 18.
Jackson suffered serious injuries and was flown to Atlanta Medical Center, where she remains in the intensive care unit, her distraught family told Channel 2 Action News. A man in the front seat was also injured.
“My baby didn’t have to go out this way. She didn’t have to go out this way,” Samia’s grandmother, Erica Jackson, told the news station.
The child’s Christmas stocking is still hanging on the mantel of her family’s Newnan-area home, but Samia will never get the chance to play with those presents, her grandmother said.
Diaz suffered relatively minor injuries in the crash and was booked into the Coweta County Jail on Sunday morning, authorities said. He’s charged with vehicular homicide, serious injury by vehicle, failure to maintain lane, DUI less safe and an open container violation, jail records show.
Samia’s family has launched an online fundraiser to help cover the toddler’s funeral expenses. A candlelight vigil is planned for Sunday afternoon at Saint Smyrna Baptist Church in Newnan.
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