Wife of Braves Trainer Killed in Crash at BetLM

Wife of Braves Trainer Killed in Crash

ATLANTA

The Atlanta Braves orga­ni­za­tion offered its con­do­lences over the week­end to head trainer Jeff Porter, say­ing the team was “deeply sad­dened” after Porter’s wife Kathy died in what author­i­ties described as a col­li­sion between a Geor­gia State Patrol cruiser and an SUV dri­ven by the trainer.

“The Braves fam­ily is deeply sad­dened and shocked to learn about the tragic acci­dent,” the team said in an emailed state­ment hours after the crash Sat­ur­day after­noon. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jeff and Kathy’s fam­ily, their son David and all their friends and loved ones.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Porter, his wife and son and a friend were on their way to the Chick-fil-A-Bowl at the time, about 4:40 p.m. Saturday.

A wit­ness, Steve Bouye, told the news­pa­per on Sun­day he had just got­ten off work from his job as a fed­eral prison employee when he saw the trooper’s cruiser zoom past him on Sat­ur­day afternoon.

“As soon as I saw him go past I said ‘Man I hope he don’t hit nobody,”‘ Bouye said. “Sec­onds later I heard a big blast like a train crash.”

Bouye said he and Jeff Porter tried unsuc­cess­fully to open Kathy Porter’s door as she faded in and out of con­scious­ness after the collision.

State Patrol spokesman Gordy Wright said in an email state­ment late Sat­ur­day that the trooper was trav­el­ing with emer­gency lights and siren acti­vated Sat­ur­day after­noon when the cruiser struck a Ford Expe­di­tion dri­ven by Jeff Porter at the inter­sec­tion of Memo­r­ial Drive and Capi­tol Avenue.

Wright said the trooper, who had been trav­el­ing west­bound on Memo­r­ial Drive, was going to assist another trooper who was attempt­ing to stop a motor­cy­clist on nearby Inter­state 20, west of the Down­town Con­nec­tor. Wright said that motor­cy­clist had failed to yield.

State police pro­vided few new details Sun­day, but Wright said in an email state­ment that the trooper “was not involved in a chase but going to assist another trooper.”

Accord­ing to Wright, the Ford Expe­di­tion was trav­el­ing north­bound on Capi­tol Avenue when it was struck on the pas­sen­ger side. The state­ment said the SUV then struck a util­ity pole.

Kathy Porter, 54, of Loganville, a pas­sen­ger in the SUV, died in the crash, Wright’s state­ment to The Asso­ci­ated Press said. It added that Jeff Porter and two other pas­sen­gers in the SUV– the couple’s 19-year-old son David and a friend, Court­ney Ann Williams, 18, of Grayson – were taken to Grady Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment of injuries. All three were released later Saturday.

The Geor­gia State Patrol on Sun­day night iden­ti­fied the offi­cer as Trooper First Class Don­ald Crozier, a 10-year veteran.

He was exam­ined at the same hos­pi­tal and released. He has been placed on admin­is­tra­tive leave as state police, the Geor­gia Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion and the Ful­ton County Dis­trict Attorney’s office inves­ti­gate. Wright said the State Patrol’s Spe­cial­ized Col­li­sion Recon­struc­tion Team was dis­patched to the crash scene to help deter­mine the cause.

“Any per­son­nel actions related to the crash will be based on the find­ings of the var­i­ous inves­ti­ga­tions,” Wright wrote.

Accord­ing to an MLB.com arti­cle posted on the Braves web site, for­mer man­ager Bobby Cox, man­ager Fredi Gon­za­les and catcher Brian McCann went to the hos­pi­tal to be with Jeff Porter after the acci­dent. The arti­cle said Porter joined Atlanta’s train­ing staff in 1985 and has been head trainer since 2003.

Our sports betting news features unique sports betting articles as well as current sports news compiled from leading wire services. This arti­cle was dis­trib­uted by Syn­di­cated Sports news wire and aggre­ga­tion ser­vice, For more MLB base­ball news see: Wife of Braves trainer killed in crash.

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