By Patrick Yost
Editor

A 4-year-old boy died Monday afternoon from injuries sustained in a single-vehicle car wreck on Georgia Highway 83.
According to Sgt. Justin Howard, Georgia State Patrol, Joshua Allen Cole was pronounced dead at the scene by Morgan County Coroner Adam Carter.
Cole’s grandmother, Cynthia Lynn Miller, 50, was the driver of the 1999 Volkswagen that, Howard said, left the roadway while traveling south on Highway 83 past Sandy Creek Road, overcorrected and spun counter-clockwise on the opposite side of the road before striking a pine tree with the rear of the vehicle. Cole, Howard said, was in a booster seat in the backseat but was not in a child restraint seat.
Miller has been charged with first degree vehicular homicide, serious injury by vehicle, DUI drugs, prescription medication not in its original container, failure to maintain lane and child restraint violation. Howard said investigators confiscated both Oxycodone and Hydrocodone pills from Miller at the scene. Howard said Miller agreed to both a blood and urine test at Morgan Memorial Hospital. She is currently detained at the Morgan County Detention Center.
A front seat passenger in the vehicle, 32-year-old Brandy Malcom, was transported to Atlanta Medical Center via life flight and remains in critical condition, Howard said.
Cole, Miller and Malcom all reside at the same Jims Daws Road, Monroe address. The incident occurred at approximately 4:30 p.m. and occurred in a curve in the road approximately one mile south of the intersection of Georgia Highway 83 and Sandy Creek Road.
Howard said troopers had collected witness statements that Miller was operating the vehicle in a reckless manner prior to the crash.

Printed in the January 31, 2013 edition