From staff reports
LAVONIA – A Hiram man was killed Monday in a single-vehicle accident on I-85.
James Allen Hardin, 19, of Hiram was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident near mile marker 172 on I-85 northbound.
Georgia State Patrol troopers were dispatched around 6:47 a.m. to the scene of the accident.
“The preliminary crash investigation revealed a red 2002 Ford Expedition was traveling northbound on Interstate 85 in the left lane. For an unknown reason, the Expedition traveled off the west shoulder and into the median, where it struck the cable barrier,” a press release from the state patrol said. “The Expedition traveled back into the northbound lanes of Interstate 85 and began to overturn. The driver was subsequently ejected and came to an uncontrolled final rest near the overturned Expedition on the west shoulder of the northbound lanes of Interstate 85.”
Hardin was transported by ambulance to the Franklin County Coroner’s Office.
The northbound lanes of I-85 were closed for about an hour and a half to conduct the crash investigation and remove an “extensive amount of roadway debris,” the release said.