Four Alcovy High School students were injured when the truck they were in crashed into a tree and caught on fire as the students headed home from school Wednesday afternoon.
According to Georgia State Patrol Trooper Shaun Browder, the accident happened at approximately 4 p.m. on Picket Bridge Road, a narrow dirt road off Ga. Highway 36, just down from AHS.
The students were heading west in a Ford F-150, the driver was a 16-year-old and there was one passenger in the front and two in the rear of the extended cab pick-up truck. They were allegedly traveling at a high rate of speed and as they came over the crest of a hill, lost control of the truck.
The vehicle hit an embankment, continued west on the north shoulder of the road, struck a tree and rotated, coming to rest on the north shoulder of the road before catching fire. According to Browder, two of the occupants were outside of the vehicle when some citizens who heard the crash came to assist. Those citizens broke the windows out of the truck and pulled the two other teens from the fiery crash. It is unclear at this time if the two students who were outside the truck when help arrived had been ejected or had gotten out on their own.All four occupants suffered serious injuries and one remains in critical condition with severe head injuries. All were sent to Atlanta Medical Center, two by life flight and two by ground ambulance.
"We were all relieved when we heard that the students had survived the crash," said Sherri Viniard, Director of Public Relations for the Newton County School System. "Some of them have some very serious injuries and our thoughts and prayers are definitely with them and their families. Hopefully each of the boys will have a speedy recovery."
