One teenager was killed and three others injured early Monday morning in a single-vehicle crash south of Fort Oglethorpe, according to the Georgia State Patrol.
Jeremy H. Morrison, 18, of Whitfield County was behind the wheel at 2 a.m. when he lost control of the vehicle, crossed the opposite lane of travel, then struck a rock wall, said state patrol Cpl. Kris Hemphill.
Only one of the teens was wearing a seat belt and that 17-year-old female passenger was the only occupant without serious injury, Hemphill said. A 13-year-old girl and a 19-year-old boy were seriously hurt.
"It's a true testament to wearing a seat belt," Hemphill said.
Alcohol was not believed to be a contributing factor in the accident, Hemphill said, but there was an open cell phone inside the vehicle at the time of the crash.
"We could just be speculating at this time, but the cell phone was there," Hemphill said. "None of the surviving passengers remembered what happened just before the crash."
Hemphill could only give the name the driver because reports were not available Monday afternoon, which was a state holiday in Georgia.
The crash happened on state Route 1 in a curving portion of the road, according to records at the central dispatch in Cartersville, Ga.
An obituary for Morrison said he was a 2010 graduate of Ringgold High School and is the child of Jerry and April Kilgore Morrison, of Tunnel Hill, Ga.
A funeral is planned for 11 a.m. Thursday at Wilson Funeral Home Wallis-Stewart Chapel in Ringgold, Ga.
Contact staff writer Adam Crisp at acrisp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6323.