- See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source
An elderly man met his fateful end after he lost control of the car he was driving and crashed into the roof of a house in Macon, Georgia.
Willie Smith Jr, 78, was behind the wheel of his white Chevrolet Equinox on Thursday when he suddenly lost control at around 9am on Waverland Drive, Bibb County, WGXA reported.
The vehicle immediately went airborne and landed into a roof of a house in the 1900 block of Woodland Drive. The car ended up perpendicular upon impact, and was only removable by crane.
The man was treated by paramedics on the scene, before he was rushed to the hospital. Coroner Leon Jones pronounced him dead shortly after.
No other injuries have been reported, and it is unknown if anyone was inside the house at the time of the crash.
The man lived 13 miles north of where he crashed, with his wife Gale, 78.
He is survived by his two children, a son and a daughter and granddaughter, who declined to comment when approached by the Daily Mail.
Anyone with information in reference to this fatal accident is urged to contact the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500 and ask to speak with a Fatality Investigator.
Willie Smith Jr, 78, was driving down Waverland Drive in Macon when he lost control of the vehicle and ended up crashing it through the roof of a house
Willie Smith Jr, 78, was driving down a road in Macon, Georgia when he lost control of the vehicle and ended up crashing through the roof of a house
This is Bibb County's fourth fatal car accident this month. On August 22, a 30-year-old man was killed in a hit-and-run on the 6200 block of Forsyth Road in north Macon, The Local Alert reported.
Three days prior, a 29-year-old man was hit by an 18-wheeler on I-475, and earlier in the month a 42-year-old woman died from complications after she was hit by a white van on Houston Avenue near Charlotte Street.
Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety currently runs an Older Driver Safety Program with an aim to decrease the number of traffic accidents involving elderly drivers, especially as the number of elderly drivers on the road increases over time.
According to data from 2022 obtained by GGOHS, older drivers (55+) accounted for 35 percent of all licensed drivers in Georgia, 24 percent of all drivers involved in car crashes and 20 percent of all drivers involved in motor vehicle crashes.
