Kane Aaron Hammock, 33, has been charged with eight counts of vehicular homicide in the second degree and one count of feticide by a vehicle in the second degree, Franka Young, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Public Safety, said in an email Tuesday afternoon. Hammock has also been charged with counts of following too closely, no registration and driver to exercise due care.
The victims were killed Monday afternoon, when the semitrailer struck a Dodge van on Interstate 85 in Jackson County, about 62 miles northeast of Atlanta and it burst into flames, according to law enforcement.
The identities of the eight people killed in the van have not been released. Young said one person may have been pregnant, “but this will not be confirmed until an autopsy has been completed.”
Hammock was arrested by the Georgia State Patrol and booked into the Jackson County Jail, records show. Jail records did not list any attorney who could be reached to comment on his behalf, and a message left late Tuesday with the local public defender’s office was not immediately returned.
Four other vehicles also crashed in what officials described as a “chain reaction” after the initial collision.
