No updates have been issued by the Georgia State Patrol Tuesday as to the status of the investigation into the early morning crash on Interstate 95 that killed Bryan County Deputy Sheriff Robert Crapse and left a Richmond Hill woman hospitalized last Friday.
But while much regarding the dynamics of the collision and what led up to it are still either unknown or yet to be released by authorities, a couple of things do appear to be certain.
Collins was driving the wrong way down the Interstate.
“She was on the wrong side of the highway, and they hit head-on,” Georgia State Patrol Trooper Joel Mock said.
Speed was a factor.
Several of the calls Savannah-Chatham Metro Police 911 received from drivers reporting seeing a vehicle traveling south in the northbound lanes just prior to the accident mentioned how fast the car was going.
“There are actually seven calls,” Gena Sullivan of the SCMPD said. “The consistent thing is that she is flying; she is going at a high rate of speed. At least four out of the seven say she was driving at a high rate of speed.”
“I can say they were definitely traveling at highway speeds,” Mock said the day after the accident.
And while Mock said after the accident he did not know if either driver was wearing their seatbelt at the time of the crash he said he was certain about headlights.
When asked about the rumor that Collins had been driving with her headlights off he replied, “That is false, her lights were on.”
Sullivan said only one of the callers to 911 said anything about lights and that it is impossible to tell what exactly what the person said.
“Only one person; and I can’t hear her clearly because the dispatcher talked over her, said something about her lights,” Sullivan said. “I can’t tell if she said she had no lights or what exactly she said. That was one out the seven calls and I can not tell for sure what she said.”
Crapse, a K9 officer, was traveling north near the 96-mile marker in Chatham County when his car was struck by a vehicle being driven south in the northbound lane by Patricia Ann Collins of Richmond Hill, according to Mock.