Inset: Kane Aaron Hammock (Jackson County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Authorities responding to the scene of the multi-car crash in Georgia (WXIA).
A 33-year-old semitruck driver in Georgia is facing a spate of criminal charges after he allegedly followed too closely behind a packed minivan, resulting in a fiery crash that left eight dead, including five children. Kane Aaron Hammock was taken into custody earlier this week and charged with eight counts of second-degree vehicular homicide, authorities announced.
Hammock is also facing one count each of second-degree feticide by vehicle, following too closely, failure to exercise duty of care, and driving without registration. All of the charges levied against Hammock are misdemeanors.
According to a news release from the Georgia Department of Public Safety, troopers with the state police from Post 32 in Athens responded at about 4:11 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 13, to reports of a six-vehicle crash on the northbound side of Interstate 85, just south of Commerce, Georgia.
“The investigation revealed that a semi-trailer was following too closely and struck the rear of a 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan,” the release states. “This caused a chain reaction involving the van and four additional vehicles. After impact, the Dodge van became engulfed in flames along with the tractor-trailer.”
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Jeff Rogers, the Jackson County deputy coroner, went on to confirm that all eight of the deceased — five children and three adults — were occupants of the Dodge Caravan. The identities of the eight victims have not yet been released.
In an email to The Associated Press, a spokesperson for the Department of Safety said that one of the victims in the van may have been pregnant, but that such a detail “will not be confirmed until an autopsy has been completed.”
Independent Atlanta television station WANF identified the victims as Kenia Ramirez, Darwin Ventura, and their child Kayle, as well as Kenia Ramirez’s mother, Maribel Ramirez, and her children: Justin, Andy, Natali, and Evan. Family members told the station that Kenia Ramirez was pregnant with the couple’s second child.
The youngest victim was 2 years old, while the oldest victim was 42, Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA reported.
A volunteer with the Atlanta-based Furkids Animal Rescue and Shelters, Michael Rullan, was transporting 37 cats to Vermont when the van he was driving was involved in a multi-car crash. The shelter said the van was “crushed” and that in the ensuing chaos, several of the animals went missing, according to a Facebook post. Two of the cats remained missing and one was in critical condition as of Tuesday afternoon.
“I was thrown to the back and I was trapped in between the kennels and the cargo door,” Rullan told WXIA.
Hammock was booked into the Jackson County Jail on $93,000 bond.
