Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills has released the names of the victims of the fatal crash.
The driver of the pickup was Derek William Stevens, 35, of Alto; the passengers were Johnathan Tyler Haney, 25, of Clermont, and Brysten David Lee Stevens, 18, of Flowery Branch. All three men died from injuries sustained in the accident, Sills said.
The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office received the call at 9:54 a.m. Thursday, April 24, regarding an accident on U.S. Hwy. 441 at the intersection of Twin Bridges and Pea Ridge roads.
The three men were traveling southbound on Hwy. 441 in a 2024 Dodge Ram pickup truck that was towing a trailer loaded with commercial air conditioning equipment.
The Dodge pickup crashed into the back of a 2022 Kenworth Tractor pulling an Aulick trailer that was also southbound but was stopped at the traffic light of the intersection. The tractor-trailer is owned by Waste Eliminator Inc. of Gainesville, according to Sills.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, Christopher Lee Owens, 40, of Danielsville, was not injured.
See the May 1 edition of The Eatonton Messenger for more information.