Victims of fiery crash on I-85 identified

February 1, 2020
1 min read
Victims of fiery crash on I-85 identified

The Gwinnett County Police Department has released the names of the two victims killed in Saturday’s fiery crash on I-85 at Jimmy Carter Blvd along with an explanation of what happened in the moments leading up to the tragic collision.

According to the police dept., the preliminary investigation into the incident has revealed more details into the circumstances surrounding the accident. Police say 31-year-old Emerald Lynn, of Norcross, was driving a silver Volkswagen Passat, and was stopped in the second from the right lane after having just been involved in a separate traffic accident.

Yonas Worku, a 44 year-old truck driver from Snellville was driving a Freightliner truck pulling a fuel tanker trailer containing approximately 8500 pounds of fuel. Police say Worku approached the rear of Lynn’s stopped vehicle, and for unknown reasons, was unable to stop or avoid a collision.

“After the initial collision, both vehicles separated from each other before the tanker truck spun sideways across four lanes of traffic, causing it to flip multiple times. Both vehicles came to rest adjacent to one another, and both were quickly engulfed in flames,” Police spokesman Jacob Albright said.

Both Lynn and Worku died from injuries sustained during the incident.

In total, I-85 North was shut down either completely, or partially, for about 10 hours. Emergency paving was conducted at the accident scene to repair damage to the roadway before it was re-opened at about 6 p.m.

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