Sheriff calls for intersection upgrades after deadly crash in Habersham Co

Sheriff Joey Terrell is asking Habersham County Commissioners and the Georgia DOT for safety upgrades at the intersection of Highway 365 and Mount Zion Road in Habersham County:  that’s where a Corvette and an SUV collided this past Sunday, killing five people, two of them small children.

From WSB TV…

A Georgia sheriff is demanding action after the wife and children of a sheriff’s deputy were killed in a fiery crash.

A memorial now stands where the family -- as well as two other people -- were killed on Sunday.

Avonlea Holtzclaw and her daughter and son, who were just five and six years old, were killed after a Corvette slammed into them on Highway 365. Both cars burst into flames. Holtzclaw and the children were the family of Hall County Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Neil Holtzclaw.

The sheriff said the Corvette was going more than 150 mph. 58-year-old Mitchell Boggs and an unidentified passenger were killed.

Channel 2′s Bryan Mims was in Habersham County Wednesday, where there were stuffed animals and three white crosses amid the charred grass and debris.

Mims learned that two other people were killed at the same intersection in October 2021.

The day after the crash, Habersham County Sheriff Joe Terrell aired his grief and frustration at a Board of Commissioners meeting. Terrell said the intersections along Highway 365 are too dangerous. He said he’s now calling for a meeting with the state DOT and county leaders to discuss ways to make them safe.

“As long as people are involved, we’ll never make it completely safe, because people do what people do,” Terrell said. “That’s just what we do. But if we can help improve those bad intersections, it would go a long way.”

Avonlea Holtzclaw worked as a real estate agent for Keller Williams Realty in Gainesville.

Her manager told Mims that she was a “humble, genuine and good-hearted person who always had a smile on her face.”

The Hall County Sheriff’s Office sent a written statement to Channel 2 Action News, reading:

“What can you say when someone loses his entire family? There are no words that can adequately express the heartbreak the Holtzclaw family is experiencing right now, but clearly, our entire agency is devastated for them.”

The sheriff’s office has set up a fundraiser to help the family with funeral expenses. You can donate HERE.

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