VALDOSTA —
A Lake Park man was arrested following a fatal wreck Saturday morning in Lowndes County, according to the state patrol.
The accident took place around 3:22 a.m. on Twin Lakes Road, about seven-tenths of a mile east of Loch Laurel Road, said Sergeant First Class Carl Taylor of the Georgia State Patrol, reading from another trooper’s report.
The vehicle, driven by Johnnie D. Moore, 23, of Lake Park, left the road, hit an embankment, and overturned, ejecting some of the passengers, Taylor said.
Of the four people in the vehicle, one, Victoria Hanson, 41, of Lake Park, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected and killed, he said. She died of blunt force trauma, said Lowndes County Coroner Bill Watson.
Another passenger, Karen Beck, 45, who was also ejected and not wearing a seat belt, sustained injuries indicative of broken ribs and a punctured lung, Taylor said. The fourth passenger was wearing a seat belt, he said.
There was some delay in the state patrol getting to the scene of the accident because only one trooper was available at the time; he was working another wreck in another county and the initial phone call about the accident did not mention the severity of the wreck, Taylor said.
The driver apparently left the scene of the accident and was not identified and apprehended until about 3 p.m., he said. Taylor said the passenger who died was not identified until everyone else in the vehicle could be interviewed.
The state patrol’s Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team is investigating the accident, he said.
Troopers are looking into the possibility of the case being vehicular homicide, Taylor said. Charges pending against one of the passengers include obstructing the investigation, he said.
Hanson’s body is being sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Macon today for an autopsy, Watson said.
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