The man killed in a fiery, single-vehicle crash on Interstate 75 in June has been identified.
Catoosa County, Georgia, coroner James Spurling identified the driver as 67-year-old Chattanoogan Joseph E. Kirby.
According to an incident report from the Georgia State Patrol, Kirby was driving a Dodge Ram and was traveling south in the left lane of the interstate on June 7 in Catoosa County when he suddenly ran off the road. The truck then hit a support beam of a concrete bridge under the overpass on Highway 3.
The truck then struck a second concrete support beam, rotated clockwise, caught on fire and was fully engulfed in flames. Because of the fire, first responders were not immediately able to get close to the truck.
Troopers said there were no brake marks or skid marks on the road, nor was there evidence of a second vehicle involved.
"For those of you that didn't know him, you might have known him as Adventure Joe, owner of Edd Kirby's Adventure Auto Group and the cartoon-like character people loved to hate for his silly commercials on the radio," Kirby's obituary reads. "But he was so, so much more than that to his family. He really was Adventure Joe."
Kirby, a Chattanooga native, graduated from McCallie in 1972 and later from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
He is survived by his wife, Becky, and their two children Robert and Beth, as well as three granddaughters.
Contact Patrick Filbin at pfilbin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow him on Twitter @PatrickFilbin.