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Another wreck on Highway 365 shut down the southbound portion of the road.
A single vehicle accident on State Route 365 in Demorest lead to Habersham County’s first traffic fatality of 2020 on the highway which produced five crashes in 24 hours last week.
Gemma Musngi, 74, of Athens was the front seat passenger in the 1998 Toyota 4Runner and received fatal injuries in the crash.
The accident occurred Tuesday at 3:40 p.m. on state Route 365 south bound near Double Bridge Road.
The driver and husband, Felipe Reyes Musngi, 73 of Athens was transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville for treatment.
“Vehicle No. 1 was traveling south on SR 365 in the left travel lane. Vehicle No. 1 traveled off the roadway and into the median with all four of its tires before (Felipe Musngi) over-corrected the steering wheel back to the right,” according to a report by Sgt. Casey Coffee with Georgia State Patrol.
The report goes on to say that the 4Runner began to rotate clockwise before yawing across both of the southbound lanes of State Route 365 and then traveling off the roadway again on the west shoulder.
The car first struck a guardrail face and then several roadside trees as it overturned. It then came to a final rest on its passenger’s side off the roadway facing west in the trees below the highway shoulder.
A portion of State Route 365 south was shut down for several hours as emergency personnel on scene extricated the vehicle from the woods.
Belinda Griffin of Washington, D.C., posted on her Facebook about Musngi’s passing.
“When a close friend unexpectedly leaves us, our heart is forever broken,” Griffin said of Musngi, who was a doctor along with her husband.