Grandmother, three children injured in crash on Hwy. 54
By JOHN A. WINTERS
john@newnan.com
Three children and their grandmother were involved in a serious accident Friday in south Coweta County.
The grandmother and a child sitting directly behind her were entrapped, and rescue workers spent 15 minutes getting them out, according to Capt. Craig Sherrer with the Coweta County Fire Department. Both were airlifted to Atlanta area trauma centers with serious injuries.
Two other children, one of whom was in a car seat, were taken by Coweta Emergency Medical Service to Children’s Hospital of Atlanta at Egleston, Sherrer said.
The accident occurred shortly before 6 p.m. at the intersection of Georgia Hwy. 54 and Gordon Road.
The passenger car with the children was hit by a full-sized pickup truck, Sherrer said, adding the passenger car “sustained heavy intrusion into the driver side.”
Steve Treadwell, who lives nearby, said the pickup was headed south on Highway 54 when the Honda Civic pulled out from Gordon Road.
“The pickup just T-boned the Honda,” Treadwell said, adding the impact knocked the Honda well off the roadway.
Tara Cassidy was driving with her mother when the accident occurred.
“The car just flew right through the air,” she said. “Both the side airbags deployed and it was just a Godsend. It would have been much more serious.”
Cassidy said an 11-year-boy sitting in the front seat was able to get out, but that the children’s grandmother, and a 7-year-old sitting behind her, had to be cut out of the vehicle. Another child in a car seat also was in the back. The children’s father arrived on scene soon afterward.
“The (pickup) driver was visibly concerned and upset,” Cassidy said. “He just kept apologizing and (the father) went over and prayed with him.”
The Georgia State Patrol trooper handling the investigation was not immediately available.
