Deputy loses wife, young kids in fiery Georgia crash that killed 5. ‘There are no words’
A sheriff’s deputy’s wife and two young kids were among five people killed in a fiery wreck on a Georgia highway, according to state authorities and news outlets.
It happened at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, July 16, along Georgia State Route 365 in Habersham County, according to Georgia State Patrol.
Three of the victims, including a 5- and 6-year-old, were the family of Hall County Deputy Neil Holtzclaw, the sheriff’s office confirmed to McClatchy News.
“What can you say when someone loses his entire family?” Sheriff Gerald Couch said in a statement. “There are no words that can adequately express the heartbreak the Holtzclaw family is experiencing right now, but clearly our entire agency is devastated for them.”
A driver in a Chevy Corvette, identified as Mitchell Boggs, 58, of Marietta, and a passenger were headed southbound in the right lane approaching Mt. Zion Road, troopers said in a preliminary report.
A Ford Explorer carrying 29-year-old Avonlea Holtzclaw and her two children was trying to cross the southbound side of the highway onto Mt. Zion Road. That’s when the Corvette struck them on the right side, troopers said.
The impact caused both vehicles to burst into flames.
All five died at the scene, troopers said.
Couch offered his condolences to Holtzclaw’s family and asked for privacy on their behalf.
At a recent commissioner’s meeting, Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell estimated the Corevette was traveling at “more than 150 mph” before the fatal crash, The Gainesville Times reported.
State troopers’ preliminary report didn’t include details about the Corvette’s speed or if it was a contributing factor.
Habersham County is about 90 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta.
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