A driver was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries early Saturday after a truck towing a car hauler trailer ran off Interstate 75 South near Shiloh Road in Cobb County and slammed into a line of trees. The crash happened around 4:48 a.m. just south of the Shiloh Road interchange near Kennesaw, an industrial and arterial corridor that sees heavy overnight traffic off the interstate.
According to WSB-TV, the vehicle involved was a gray 2024 Ram 3500 pulling a 2002 Take III car hauler trailer. Investigators believe the driver failed to maintain a lane before the truck went down a grassy embankment and crashed into the trees. Cobb County police confirmed the driver was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, according to Atlanta News First, which reported that officers were called to the southbound lanes near Shiloh Road Saturday morning.
Cause Still Under Investigation
The exact cause of the crash remains unclear, and Cobb County police say the incident is still under investigation. Police believe the truck ran off the road and struck several trees, but what led to the lane departure — whether fatigue, a mechanical issue, or something else — has not been determined.
The Cobb County Police Department's Selective Traffic Enforcement Program, known as the STEP Unit, is leading the reconstruction of the crash and is asking anyone with information to call 770-499-3987, the same report from WSB-TV notes. The unit is tasked with reconstructing all fatal and major-injury collisions across the county, often relying on drone photography and 3D scene mapping to preserve evidence before reopening lanes, a technique Hoodline has previously detailed in its coverage of another recent I-75 wreck.
Another Rough Week on I-75 North of Atlanta
Saturday's crash comes just a week after a 26-year-old Cartersville man was killed on northbound I-75 near the I-575 interchange, also in Cobb County, after his car failed to maintain its lane and struck a tractor-trailer parked in the gore zone, according to the Cobb County Courier. That fatal wreck, too, was investigated by the STEP Unit.
The stretch of I-75 through northern Cobb County has seen other serious wrecks involving trucks pulling trailers. In April, a chain-reaction crash involving a pickup towing a trailer and two semi-trucks shut down I-75 northbound near Wade Green Road, leaving two people dead, Hoodline reported at the time. Federal crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that driver drowsiness, fatigue, and lane departure are leading factors in single-vehicle run-off-road crashes, which occur most frequently in the pre-dawn hours between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. — the same window in which Saturday's crash unfolded.
Countywide Numbers and Road Work Overnight
The crash also adds to a grim tally for Cobb County, which recorded 27,604 motor vehicle crashes in 2024, resulting in 57 fatalities and 449 suspected serious injuries, according to Governor's Office of Highway Safety and Georgia Department of Transportation data compiled by Burrow & Associates. The county consistently ranks among the top three in Georgia for total motor vehicle crashes, alongside Fulton and DeKalb counties.
The wreck also occurred during a period of scheduled overnight roadwork on the corridor. Georgia DOT Metro Atlanta had announced full overnight closures of the I-75 Northbound Express Lanes in Marietta and Kennesaw for striping work from Friday night through Saturday morning, work that can shift traffic patterns and create unexpected congestion in the area. Under Georgia's trailer safety statute, O.C.G.A. § 40-8-54, vehicles towing trailers on public highways must be secured with at least two safety chains, a requirement investigators typically examine in wrecks involving hauling equipment. No further details on the trailer's condition or the crash's underlying cause have been released as the STEP Unit's investigation continues.
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