There were seven vehicles, but only a couple of minor injuries in a crash at the Walmart intersection on Thursday afternoon.
“It’s a miracle no one was seriously hurt,” Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell said.
The police department received the call a few minutes before 2 p.m. regarding the accident, and Officer Carl Hudson responded to the scene.
According to Hudson and Cardwell, 54-year-old Tammy Kilgore of Eatonton was driving northbound on Oak Street, and as she got to the intersection, she lost control of the gray 2023 Infinity QX 80 she was driving. Her SUV went into the grass median, then back out of the median and into the intersection.
As she went through the intersection, her QX 80 clipped a U-Haul trailer that was being pulled by a Dodge Ram pickup going southbound through the intersection and driven by a 22-year-old Florida man. The crash caused the side of the U-Haul to separate from the trailer.
Still out of control, the QX 80 struck a dark colored 2015 Nissan Altima that was also heading southbound through the intersection and driven by a 29-year-old Waycross man. Next, the Infinity crashed head-on into a white Nissan Altima driven by a 19-year-old Blackshear, Georgia woman who was stopped in the southbound left turn lane. The impact pushed the Altima into a 2001 Chevrolet Silverado being driven by a 56-year-old man from Cleveland, Georgia.
Other vehicles reportedly hit by the QX 80 or debris from the wreckage include a white Toyota Highlander and a blue Nissan Altima.
“Her car just bounced off from car to car, and debris was flying,” Cardwell said. “Thankfully, no one was seriously injured.”
Cardwell said traffic was limited to only one lane for about an hour as emergency personnel worked the wreck and cleared the scene.
Kilgore and the driver of the white Altima that was hit head-on were both taken by Putnam County EMS to Putnam General Hospital to be treated.
Cardwell said it is not yet known what caused Kilgore to lose control of her vehicle. He asked the Georgia State Patrol to take over the investigation.