CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A survivor of a horrific hit-and-run crash in Clayton County involving a tractor-trailer said he wants to know why that truck driver never stopped.
Dylan Whittemore, 20, told Channel 2's Matt Johnson that it could be years until he is able to work again because someone in an 18-wheeler on Interstate 75 crashed into the truck he was in.
“It’s completely changed my life,” Whittemore said.
The powerful collision destroyed the truck carrying Whittemore, and it nearly took his life, too.
“I was underneath the hood and the truck, and the truck driver just kept on driving,” Whittemore told Johnson.
He said he was a passenger in a work truck on Interstate 75 en route to help deliver a tank of water in Henry County.
On March 19, his friend in the driver's seat told Clayton County police he was approaching an 18-wheeler with no rear lights on.
He tried to pass it near Mt. Zion Boulevard, but he said the tractor-trailer crossed into his lane and the two trucks collided.
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A picture from a Georgia Department of Transportation camera shows traffic backed up for miles.
Johnson got the police report from the crash, which said the other driver never stopped.
“I know he looked in his mirror. He had to have seen. He knew how bad that truck was,” Whittemore told Johnson.
Whittemore said he blacked out after the crash at around 11:30 p.m. and woke up at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Glenda Soky, Whittemore’s grandmother, said staff at the hospital gave her the impression he may not survive the night.
“They said, 'Get here as quick as possible,'” Soky told Johnson. “When I walked in to see him and he was on that ventilator, it was very hard.”
After 30 staples in his head and 16 stitches, Whittemore is out of the hospital and recovering.
“I’m going to be out of work for a long time. They said it could take up to two years for my brain to heal,” Whittemore said.
He said part of healing is getting the other driver to come forward.
“Whatever was going on, own up to what you did,” Whittemore said.
Police asked around a few days later, and they found no record of anyone in a tractor-trailer reporting a crash.
Whittemore’s attorney said police are closing in on a lead involving a damaged 18-wheeler behind a gas station but no arrests have been made.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help with Whittemore's medical expenses.
Anyone with information about who the driver may be, is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477.
Cox Media Group
