COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Police said Tuesday the driver who died after running off an Akers Mill Road overpass and crashing head-on onto I-75 below was a 33-year-old Paulding County man.
The Cobb County Police Department identified the driver as Dennis Farve, of Dallas, Georgia.
Family called him a "sweet guy and a great father" who was always there for his family.
According to police, for reasons that still aren't clear the Chevrolet pickup truck exited off I-75 on the Akers Mill Road HOV ramp, continued up the ramp going at a high rate of speed, went through the intersection and then crashed through the concrete barrier onto the interstate below.
There were no skid marks at the scene, indicating there was no attempt to brake before the driver went through the wall.
Aerial video showed a gap in the wall and fencing where the truck careened off Akers Mill Road and onto the highway, a short ways south of I-285, below. The grey truck landed in between the northbound and southbound lanes, leaning on its nose at the base of the overpass.
1 dead when truck goes off I-75 overpass near Atlanta
The site of the crash is not far from where a college baseball team's bus crashed off a Northside Drive overpass and onto I-75 more than a decade ago. A man driving the bus made the fatal mistake. He drove the bus up the left-lane HOV exit. The bus toppled over that exit's concrete barrier, back onto the highway. That accident killed seven people.
Police said Farve's family had been notified.
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