DATE: December 17, 2018
Multi-Vehicle Accident on I-75 South
The Marietta Police Department’s Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (S.T.E.P.) Unit is currently investigating a fatal crash that occurred on Interstate 75 South near the overpass for South Marietta Parkway Saturday night, December 15, 2018 at 10:44 PM.
The initial on-scene investigation revealed that a 2006 silver Mazda 3, driven by Melissa Gail Cole, a fifty-two-year-old female of Marietta, Georgia, was traveling southbound on I-75. For reasons still unknown, Cole lost control of her vehicle. The Mazda spun out of control eventually into the path of a 2007 Chevy Suburban towing a 1999 Bayliner recreational boat. According to witnesses, the driver of the Suburban did not have time to avoid colliding with the Mazda.
Cole, the driver of the Mazda, did not survive the accident. A thirty-one-year-old male from Roswell, Georgia, the only passenger in the Mazda, was transported to WellStar Kennestone Hospital with life-threatening injuries. His name is not being released pending notification of his family. The driver of the Suburban, Laurentiu Pantelimon, a thirty-eight-year-old male from Illinois, was traveling to Florida with his wife and children. None of the occupants of the Suburban required transportation to the Hospital.
The Marietta Police Department’s S.T.E.P. Unit is still actively investigating the collision. Anyone with information regarding this crash is urged to contact Ofc. Samimi at 770-794-5300.
