DALTON, Ga. — The Georgia State Patrol says no charges will be filed after a fiery crash Monday morning in Hall County that sent a Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office deputy and two inmates she was transporting to a hospital with minor injuries after the deputy ran a stop sign and her patrol car crashed into a trailer.

Deputy Rosalia Pacheco-Hernandez, 23, was transporting Hillary Marie McHan, 30, of Dalton, and Amanda Nicole Townsend, 33, of Tunnel Hill, to Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto in Habersham County. According to the state patrol, Pacheco-Hernandez ran a stop sign at the intersection of Highway 52 and Highway 284 outside of Gainesville at 7:50 a.m., crashing into a fifth-wheel trailer. A statement from the state patrol said, “Traffic citations are written at the discretion of the trooper.”

The trailer was pulled by a 2006 Dodge Ram truck driven by Steven Gallo, who was in the area on vacation with his wife Renee from Lake Worth, Fla.

After impact, the 2011 Ford Crown Victoria patrol car became engulfed in flames, leading to a chaotic scene as people rushed to safety. 

“Everybody was just scrambling to get the inmates out of the back of the car because they were shackled in,” Steven Gallo told Atlanta television station WSB-TV. “So they were scrambling to get them out before the fire — because you didn’t know if it was going to explode — on top of the fact that I had propane in the trailer that was on to keep the refrigerator going so I could hear it leaking, so it was just a rush to get everyone away.”

Pacheco-Hernandez, McHan and Townsend were taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville.

McHan was being taken to Lee Arrendale State Prison after receiving a two-year sentence on drug and theft charges earlier this year. Townsend was in custody after being arrested in September on a parole violation charge. 

Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood said he was awaiting the release of the report from the state patrol before commenting but said he knew Pacheco-Hernandez was doing well.