It was a regular day for Georgia police and a tow truck when they responded to a highway accident — the kind that happens every day across the country.
But it’s what happened moments later that people have usually seen only on “The Dukes of Hazzard” or “The Fast and Furious” saga: A Florida woman drove her sedan up the ramp of the tow truck, launching the car 120 feet and flipping through the air in a wild crash caught by a body camera.
The driver has been described by authorities as a 21-year-old woman from Tallahassee. The woman, who has not been publicly identified, was hospitalized with serious injuries after the May 24 crash, according to the Georgia State Patrol (GSP). Her condition was unclear as of Thursday morning.
🚨#WATCH: As Wild video shows a woman gets distracted while driving as her car flys through the air after launching off the ramp of a tow truck
⁰📌#Lowndes | #Georgia⁰⁰Watch as Wild Jaw-dropping Body cam footage captured by Georgia Police shows the moment as a distracted woman… pic.twitter.com/noKPeSQnwu— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) May 31, 2023
The crash occurred last week on Route 84 near Valdosta, Ga., after an unrelated incident on the opposite side of the highway, authorities told the Associated Press on Wednesday. A tow truck had its emergency lights activated and was just about to load a wrecked vehicle around 11:20 a.m. when a 2014 Nissan Altima drove onto the truck’s deployed ramp and “vaulted” into the air, the GSP said.
Body-camera video from a Lowndes County sheriff’s deputy shows the car airborne for less than two seconds and flipping as it flies 120 feet from the tow truck. When the car crashed down on the highway, it struck another vehicle and tumbled end over end for another 23 feet, according to a GSP crash report. A sheriff’s deputy shouts an expletive before running to the mangled car.
“1050 rollover!” the deputy shouts into his radio, requesting immediate assistance from EMS responders, according to video.
Authorities say they’re not sure why the motorist drove onto the truck’s ramp or how fast she was going. The speed limit in the area is 65 mph.
The woman was taken for treatment at South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta, more than 70 miles northeast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle. A sheriff’s deputy was hit by flying debris in the crash, but authorities said his injuries were not life-threatening. The driver of the vehicle struck by the Altima when it landed was not injured, authorities said.
A spokesperson with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
It is unclear whether the driver will face charges related to the crash. State law says a driver who fails to move over for emergency vehicles faces penalties such as a fine of $500 and three points on their driver’s license.
Georgia’s Move Over Law requires drivers to slow down and move over a lane when approaching emergency vehicles — including tow trucks — with flashing lights that are parked on the shoulder of the highway. The law was enacted to address the “growing numbers of police, emergency technicians and DOT workers being killed during routine traffic stops, crash responses and highway construction projects around the nation,” according to the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. All 50 states have move-over laws, according to AAA.
“And if traffic is too heavy to move over safely, the law requires drivers to slow down below the posted speed limit instead AND to be prepared to stop,” the Georgia law says.
AAA recommends that drivers remain alert, avoid distractions, keep an eye out for emergency vehicles, slow down and move over a lane if that is possible.
“Sadly, every year about 23 roadside workers and first responders (one every two weeks) loses their life at the roadside and hundreds more are injured while tending to disabled vehicles,” AAA says.
Georgia State Patrol Lt. Crystal Zion told WSB-TV, an ABC affiliate in Atlanta, that the crash video should be a reminder to drivers in and out of the state to pay attention on the road.
“It takes out the distractions of driving fast or phones or other people in the car,” Zion said. “When you see those lights to slow down, move over.”
The video, which had been viewed millions of times on Twitter as of Thursday morning, was a frightening scene for Louis Kenda, a part owner of Kenda Truck Center in Valdosta.
“I can control the load that I am towing, I can control where it’s at once I arrive on the scene, and I can control how it gets off my truck. The only thing I cannot control is the people driving by,” Kenda told WALB, an ABC and NBC affiliate in Albany, Ga. “That is the worst nightmare.”
Many who saw the video could not believe that the driver survived the horrific accident. The Twitter account for Everything Georgia summed up the sentiments of those who watched the crash in disbelief: “Luckily they survived.”
correction
A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to Route 84 as Interstate 84. The article has been corrected.
