Woman dies in accident on I-20

A South Carolina woman died Sunday in a crash with a tractor-trailer on Interstate 20, authorities said.

The wreck backed up traffic in both directions for more than three hours.

Police were called to the eastbound lanes of I-20 at about 5:30 p.m., Richmond County Chief Deputy Coroner Mark Bowen said.

Patricia Cary, 60, of Columbia, was driving a late-model Oldsmobile east between the Bobby Jones Expressway and Washington Road exits when she apparently lost control in a construction zone where the lane shifts.

She hit a concrete barrier on the right side of the two-lane road. After she over-corrected, her car jumped the concrete median and hit a westbound tractor-trailer, knocking her airborne back onto the eastbound lanes, Mr. Bowen said.

The woman died from body trauma, he said.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation lab would not do an autopsy because no charges are pending, Mr. Bowen said.

Westbound traffic slowed to a crawl for several hours, and emergency personnel had to travel west along closed eastbound lanes to reach the accident, Mr. Bowen said.

All lanes were open, but slow, by 9 p.m.

Gold Cross emergency personnel took the tractor-trailer driver to Medical College of Georgia Hospital. His name was unavailable late Sunday.

Reach Timothy Cox at (706) 823-3217 or tim.cox@augustachronicle.com.