A 24-year-old woman was identified as the lone person killed in a seven-car pileup on I-75 South in Atlanta on Friday that left six other people injured.
McKayla Harshaw died after her Toyota Corolla flipped over in a crash that involved several much larger vehicles, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed. Harshaw was in the passenger seat while her boyfriend drove, according to a GoFundMe page created by her family. She would have turned 25 on Monday.
The multi-vehicle crash began after a Pontiac stalled in the southbound lanes and forced one lane of traffic to abruptly slow down, causing a chain reaction, authorities said.
Credit: GoFundMe
Credit: GoFundMe
State troopers were called to the scene on the interstate just past Howell Mill Road around 1:30 p.m., according to a Georgia State Patrol spokeswoman. The wreck involved a mixture of cars and trucks all traveling in the same lane just before I-75 merges with I-85 in Midtown.
Traffic began to suddenly divert around a disabled Pontiac and stop abruptly on the interstate, the GSP spokeswoman said. The sudden slow traffic led two Freightliner utility trucks to hit a Ford Transit van, which piled into a Hyundai sedan, a Toyota Corolla and an Audi A4, according to GSP.
One of the Freightliner trucks steered left at the initial impact with the Ford van and overturned, the spokeswoman said. The Toyota also flipped and Harshaw was fatally injured, per GSP. The six other drivers involved were all taken to the hospital.
Investigators from GSP and the medical examiner’s office were called to the scene to investigate. The incident added an extra layer of chaos to a day when emergency responders and work crews were busy with recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
The fatal crash investigation, which lasted more than four hours, shut down all lanes of I-75 South and cut off a major transportation artery at a time when Gov. Brian Kemp said critical resources were being relocated from North Georgia to the southern regions of the state that were clobbered by Helene. Both Freightliner trucks involved in the crash were bucket trucks that are commonly used by utility companies to work on trees and power lines.
Officials have not said if the crash created delays in moving equipment, resources and manpower to South Georgia.
The GoFundMe page for Harshaw described the 24-year-old as “a beautiful, thriving young woman with her entire life ahead of her.”
According to her family, she did not have life insurance and the fundraiser was created to help cover her funeral expenses.
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