Laurens County was shaken late Sunday night after a deadly crash on a quiet stretch of highway ended three lives and left a family torn apart in seconds.
The collision happened at about 11:51 p.m. on May 3 at the intersection of Georgia Highway 29 South and JW Warren Road in East Dublin. It was a two-vehicle head-on crash that unfolded suddenly in the dark.
Authorities say 29-year-old Damarcus Tyrell Wimbush of Millen was driving one of the vehicles involved. The other was driven by 35-year-old Chelsea Elizabeth Wilson of Soperton, who had her children with her in the car.
Wimbush was pronounced dead at the scene around 1 a.m. Monday. Officials confirmed he died from multiple blunt force injuries caused by the impact.
Wilson and her 16-year-old daughter, Aliah Michelle Smith, were rushed to Fairview Park Hospital after the crash. Wilson was pronounced dead at 1:12 a.m., and her daughter later died at 2:37 a.m.
Two other children were also inside Wilson’s vehicle at the time. One child was treated at Fairview Park Hospital and is expected to recover. The other was airlifted to a hospital in Augusta, though officials have not released their condition.
Deputy Coroner Nathan Stanley described the aftermath as devastating, saying the crash changed several lives in a matter of seconds. “It’s sad. A lot of lives changed in a split second,” he said.
The Georgia State Patrol is still investigating what led to the head-on collision and has not yet released further details about possible contributing factors.
