The first witness on the scene of a crash that killed five people and critically injured two others Friday night says she has cried and cried since the incident.
“It was just horrible,” Brandy Wright said Saturday afternoon.
Wright and her husband Brian were traveling on West Point Road when one of the drivers involved in the crash, Willie L. Hooks, 28, came up behind them in his Cutlass, trying to pass their Chevrolet King Cab truck.
“It felt like he clipped us,” Wright said. “The truck shook. It’s a big truck, so it takes a lot for it to shake.”
Wright said Hooks was unable to pass the truck and when she looked behind her to see what he was doing, she witnessed the crash between his car and the Pontiac of Melanie K. Lemmon, 23, of LaGrange.
“The rear of the Pontiac came up in the air and came back down and there was a puff of smoke,” she said. “I said ‘Oh my God, they wrecked!’ and told my husband ‘Turn around, turn around, turn around.’”
“We saw and heard the crash,” she said. “(Hooks) was flying.”
Wright wonders if when Hooks possibly clipped her truck, he lost control and that’s what forced him into the other lane where the crash occurred.
Wright says she jumped out of her truck while it was still rolling to attempt to help the victims. The motor of the Pontiac had been forced into the cars front seat with the driver and passenger, she said. The Cutlass looked like an aluminum can that had its ends bent in.
Wright said she knew immediately Lemmon had not survived the crash.
“I was just running around the cars, trying to find survivors,” she said. “There was no moaning. There was nothing.”








