Families of victims in crash that killed nursing students speak out

ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News is hearing from families of three Georgia Southern University nursing students who died in a south Georgia wreck last month.

Channel 2 investigative reporter Aaron Diamant also spoke exclusively with the parents of one of the two survivors about their daughters’ lives and immense loss.

The crash happened April 22 on eastbound Interstate 16 in Bryan County.

Killed were Emily Clark, a junior from Powder Springs, Morgan Bass, a junior from Leesburg, Abbie Deloach, a junior from Savannah, McKay Pittman, a junior from Alpharetta, and Caitlyn Bagget, a junior from Millen.

Brittney McDaniel of Reidsville and Megan Richards of Loganville were injured in the crash. All seven girls were students in the nursing school.

“She just loved people. She loved helping people,” Kathy Clark, mother of Emily Clark, told Diamant. “She was just so determined to do well and she just got an excitement in her eye when she thought she was helping somebody, or doing something good for somebody.”

Police say a tractor-trailer rig failed to stop as traffic in front of it slowed on the interstate about 5:45 a.m. The truck smashed into a line of cars. In total seven vehicles, including two tractor trailers and five passenger cars, were involved in the crash.

Dalton and Mandy Richards of Loganville said they are amazed their daughter Megan walked away from the horrific crash.

"It's very hard. Megan is a miracle. We're just grateful she's alive, but I feel very heartbroken for the other families and Megan's been struggling with it, too," Mandy Richards said.

Megan recently signed on to sue Total Transportation of Mississippi. The Georgia State Patrol says one of its drivers caused the chain reaction wreck.

"Maybe they'll wake up and implement new safety plans," Dalton said.

Jimmy Deloach knows that wakeup call comes too late to save his daughter, Abbie.

"How can I make sure that you don't receive that phone call that sends your world into a different spin?" he asked.

It is a resolve shared by Craig and Kathy Clark, who lost their daughter, Emily.

"If we can help somebody else from sitting here having to talk about their daughter, that's what we'd like to do,” Craig Clark said.

Still, Rickey and Linda Bagget, like the others, say their faith has helped them make peace with their daughter Caitlyn's death, as friends and family rally around them.

"You just don't realize how many lives we have touched, that she has touched; because we had people in and out from the very get go," Linda Bagget said.

Shortly after learning the identities of the students, Channel 2's Rachel Stockman traveled to Statesboro to talk to the women's fellow students about how they are being remembered on campus.

Stockman also made contact with a man who tried to help save the students after he drove up on the wreck.

“I borrowed a fire extinguisher from a truck driver and tried to put the fire,” the man said, adding that he talked to the truck driver who struck the girls who told him he wished he died too.

Channel 2's Mike Petchenik talked to the mother of McKay Pittman. Pittman called her every morning on her way to school, and when she didn't call, her mother knew something was wrong.

“When your children leave, every morning when your child leaves, whether they are in college or whether they are at home, tell them you love them,” said Sherrin Pittman.

WSBTV