Brunswick, GA : Jacksonville suspect running from officers after crash of stolen truck, hit, killed by semi on Wednesday, January 25, 2017

A Jacksonville man suspected of driving a stolen truck the wrong way on Interstate 95, survived a near head-on collision near Brunswick but was killed when a semi hit him as he ran across the opposite lanes to escape from the crash scene, Glynn County police said.

Just before 10 p.m., Glynn County police received a call of a truck stolen in Florida travelling north in the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 and nearing the Camden-Glynn county line, Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said.

Before officers could intercept the vehicle, it hit a southbound SUV nearly head-on at the U.S. 17 interchange and caught fire, Doering said.

The driver of the truck wouldn’t cooperate with officers as they tried to remove him from the truck, but they eventually removed him and arrested and handcuffed him, Doering said.

The state patrol identified the driver as 24-year-old Jesse Denton of Jacksonville.

He was placed on a gurney so EMTs could evaluate his injuries, but he managed to escape the restraints on the gurney, jumped a guardrail in the highway median and ran into the northbound lanes, Doering said.

As Denton was running through traffic, he was hit by a tractor-trailer rig, the state patrol said.

Two state patrol troopers are investigating the accidents separately.

A preliminary report said there were three vehicles in the initial crash, a 2013 Ford F150, a 2017 Chevrolet Tahoe and another Chevrolet SUV.

The state patrol identified only one driver, James Jackson, 47, of Lancaster, S.C. He escaped injury as did his three passengers, all from the Lancaster-Rock Hill area of South Carolina, the state patrol said.

A couple traveling in another SUV were both injured, but the report did not provide their names. The trooper has said they were both physicians and were traveling as a group with Jackson and his passengers on vacation.

The second state patrol report says 58-year-old Berley Crosby of Pelion, S.C., was driving the tractor-trailer rig that hit Denton.

Denton was taken to Southeast Georgia Health System’s Brunswick hospital and pronounced dead there, the state patrol said.

Lanes in both directions on I-95 were closed while troopers, police officers and other emergency workers cleared the scene.

A Camden County deputy was also trying to catch up with the truck on I-95, but the truck crashed before he could intercept it, Maj. Larry Bruce of the Sheriff’s Office said.

Source :
Jacksonville suspect running from officers after crash of stolen truck, hit, killed by semi