Semitruck driver caused crash killing 5 kids: Police
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Inset: Kane Aaron Hammock (Jackson County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Authorities responding to the scene of the multi-car crash in Georgia (WXIA).

A 33-year-old semitruck driver in Georgia is now facing numerous criminal charges after he allegedly followed a packed minivan too closely, leading to a disastrous crash that resulted in the deaths of eight people, including five children. Kane Aaron Hammock was arrested earlier this week and charged with eight counts of second-degree vehicular homicide, officials announced.

Hammock is also charged with one count each of second-degree feticide by vehicle, following too closely, failure to exercise due care, and driving without registration. All these charges against Hammock are considered misdemeanors.

According to a news release from the Georgia Department of Public Safety, troopers from the state police Post 32 in Athens responded at approximately 4:11 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 13, following reports of a six-vehicle crash on the northbound side of Interstate 85, just south of Commerce, Georgia.

“The investigation revealed that a semi-trailer was following too closely and struck the rear of a 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan,” the release indicates. “This caused a chain reaction involving the van and four additional vehicles. After the impact, the Dodge van was engulfed in flames along with the tractor-trailer.”

Jeff Rogers, the Jackson County deputy coroner, confirmed that all eight fatalities — five children and three adults — were passengers in the Dodge Caravan. The victims’ identities have not been disclosed yet.

In an email to The Associated Press, a spokesperson for the Department of Safety said that one of the victims in the van may have been pregnant, but that such a detail “will not be confirmed until an autopsy has been completed.”

Independent Atlanta television station WANF identified the victims as Kenia Ramirez, Darwin Ventura, and their child Kayle, as well as Kenia Ramirez’s mother, Maribel Ramirez, and her children: Justin, Andy, Natali, and Evan. Family members told the station that Kenia Ramirez was pregnant with the couple’s second child.

The youngest victim was 2 years old, while the oldest victim was 42, Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA reported.

A volunteer with the Atlanta-based Furkids Animal Rescue and Shelters, Michael Rullan, was transporting 37 cats to Vermont when the van he was driving was involved in a multi-car crash. The shelter said the van was “crushed” and that in the ensuing chaos, several of the animals went missing, according to a Facebook post. Two of the cats remained missing and one was in critical condition as of Tuesday afternoon.

“I was thrown to the back and I was trapped in between the kennels and the cargo door,” Rullan told WXIA.

Hammock was booked into the Jackson County Jail on $93,000 bond.

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