A Sharpsburg woman was injured Thursday when she lost control of her vehicle while negotiating a curve on Tyrone Road and landed in a ditch.
Beverly J. Plotner, 42, the driver of the late-model white Hyundai GS 300 sedan, was traveling south on Tyrone Road just north of Ellison Road at 11:19 a.m. when the accident occurred.
She was passing in a curve at a high rate of speed, said Capt. Bryan Woodie of the Fayette County Sheriffs Department Traffic Enforcement Division. She went off the road, struck an embankment and came to rest on her side.
During the collision, Plotners vehicle crashed into several boulders, prompting many rocks to scatter several hundred feet. Her factory battery was ejected from the car, and her front windshield, which was damaged in the accident, flew off of the car and landed a few feet away.
The one-car collision roused several neighbors from their homes Thursday. Many craned their necks to watch as rescue crews pulled Plotner from the wreckage, placed her on a stretcher and wheeled her to a waiting Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services ambulance.
A Rescue One helicopter later landed in the front yard of a house at 270 Ellison Road and whisked her off to Grady Hospital in Atlanta, according to officials.
Woodie said Plotner was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. However, Plotner was ruled the at-fault party in the crash. She was charged with passing in a no passing zone, authorities said.
Witnesses at the scene said Plotner passed two vehicles while negotiating the curve, Woodie said. Woodie said Plotner told authorities she was trying to get to an appointment.
She was clearly in a no-passing zone, Woodie said. There is no possible way she should have been doing this.
Neighbors shook their heads when they learned Plotner had allegedly tried to pass cars while negotiating the deep curve on Tyrone Road. The curve on Tyrone Road is marked by yellow and black signage alerting drivers to the curve.
It was pretty asinine for her to pass on the curve, said Sheri Barber, who stood in a grassy area at the four-way intersection at Tyrone and Ellison roads, flanked by her husband, Garland.
The Barbers said accidents at the curve are pretty commonplace.
They used to have them pretty regular, but they usually happen at night, Garland Barber said. They talked about putting a caution light there, but I dont know.
Sheri Barber agreed a caution light is needed near the curve on Tyrone Road as school buses and teen-agers regularly travel the area.