SAVANNAH, Ga. — A woman and her teenage cousin traveling to visit the girl’s hospitalized father were among five people who died in a fiery crash on a Georgia interstate Tuesday afternoon.
A tractor-trailer smashed into two cars and burst into flames on I-16 west of Savannah. The crash happened on a busy stretch of the interstate near its junction with I-95, which spans the East Coast.
Wendy Melton, 39, of Reidsville was riding with her cousin, Brittanie Altman, 16, of Claxton and Virgil Moody, 19, of Hagan, when they were killed.
Melton’s brother, Tray Riner, said she was driving Altman to visit her father who was hospitalized in an intensive care unit in Savannah. Melton worked as a waitress to support her six children, ages 9 to 23, Riner said.
“She was a devoted mother. Her world revolved around her kids and her two grandkids,” Riner said. “Her children, they’re all to pieces.”