RICHMOND HILL, Ga. (AP) – Authorities say one person died and four others were hurt after a tree fell onto an interstate highway near the Georgia coast.
The Georgia State Patrol says the tree fell across a northbound lane of Interstate 95 around 1:30 a.m. Friday. That caused a chain-reaction crash that damaged nine vehicles in Bryan County about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Savannah.
Trooper Jamie Quinn told news outlets that a tractor-trailer smashed into the tree and one car that struck the fallen trunk had its top sheared off. He says two people were taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital, where one woman died.
The multiple crashes forced authorities to close all northbound lanes of I-95 overnight, though traffic was flowing again by daybreak.