A call from iPhone Crash Detection sent local authorities and emergency personnel to a vehicle crash, in which an Eatonton teen lost her life. The passenger was taken to an area trauma center.
Harley Hall, 18, of Eatonton, was killed instantly when her airborne car crashed into a tree along Putnam Beach Road shortly after 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 8, according to Putnam County Sheriff Howard R. Sills and Coroner Hollis Harrison.
The passenger, Alexander Brayden Day, 24, also of Eatonton, was taken by ambulance to Atrium Health Navicent The Medical Center for treatment, Sills said.
Hall was driving a 2005 Honda Civic along Putnam Beach Road when her car left the roadway and drifted sideways on the road “for a considerable distance,” Sills said. He estimated the Honda drifted for 40 to 50 yards before it went airborne.
“It was airborne for (another good distance) and then struck a tree on the driver’s side door,” Sills added.
Upon impact, the car wrapped around the tree, where it hung suspended in the air. First responders with Putnam County Fire Department used jaws of life to get the victims out of the car.
“Speed was most definitely a significant contributing factor, according to the impact alone,” Sills said.
Sills did not know at The Messenger’s press time Tuesday if Day had been released from the hospital or his condition.
The sheriff said Putnam County’s 911 Dispatch System occasionally receives calls from iPhone Crash Detection but emergency personnel are not always able to locate the crash. This time it worked perfectly and they found it right away, he said.