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August 6, 2012

Weekend interstate wreck kills two

Rachel Brown rachelbrown@daltoncitizen.com

Two Atlanta-area men are dead after a driver fell asleep at the wheel, flipping a pickup truck Saturday morning on I-75 in Whitfield County, officials said.

Alejandro Vega-Carmona, 26, of Acworth, was charged Saturday by the Georgia State Patrol with second degree vehicular homicide, failure to maintain lane and driving without a valid license.

Sgt. John Burnette said Vega-Carmona was apparently driving himself, 19-year-old Victor Osbaldo Benitez of Woodstock and another man back from a job site in Missouri. Burnette said it appears the men had been traveling all night when Vega-Carmona fell asleep while driving south on Interstate 75 at the 332 mile marker, one mile south of the Walnut Avenue exit, at about 9:30 a.m. The F-150 hit a guard rail, overturned and ejected Benitez and another passenger, both of whom Burnette said were “laying in the bed of the truck.”

Burnette said the second victim’s identity is being withheld pending notification of his family. A second vehicular homicide charge had not yet been filed as of Monday afternoon.

Vega-Carmona was taken to Hamilton Medical Center for injuries and released while the second victim was in critical condition at Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga over the weekend until he died.

Burnette said state law allows people over 18 to ride in the bed of a pickup truck. Vega-Carmona’s vehicular homicide charge is a misdemeanor. Had he been driving recklessly or DUI, he could have been charged with a felony, Burnette said. He said Vega-Carmona appeared to be an unlicensed driver.

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