5 people died in a fiery wrong-way crash in middle Georgia

EATONTON, Ga. (AP) — Five people died in a wrong-way crash on a rural highway in middle Georgia.

A woman and three passengers in a sedan were driving south Tuesday in the northbound lanes of U.S. 441 when the vehicle hit a northbound SUV driven by another person, officials said. All five died in the fiery aftermath of the head-on collision near Lake Sinclair, north of Milledgeville.

The crash happened just before 1 a.m. on a four-lane stretch of the highway, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told local news outlets. He said the Honda Civic, driven by 22-year-old Hailey Brooke Hayes, appeared to have been on the wrong side of the highway for more than a mile when it hit a Nissan Xterra driven by Mayla Dostie, 44.

Sills said Dostie was driving home from work at an aerospace plant in Milledgeville.

Zaleigh Adaya Brooks, 23, and Hayes’ two children, 8-month-old Tucker Hudspeth and 3-year-old Bentley Barlow, were passengers in the sedan and also died. All were from Eatonton.

Sills said deputies are still investigating.

Over the past two weeks, Georgia has seen multiple fatal car crashes. Four people died Friday on Interstate 75 south of Atlanta when a speeding vehicle clipped another car and flipped. Five other people were killed July 16 when a speeding sports car hit an SUV that was crossing U.S. 23 north of Gainesville.