The Troup County Crash Left Six Children Without Parents

Four LaGrange residents died after a Nissan Altima ran a red light on Wares Cross Road just after midnight on March 2, 2025. Georgia State Patrol said the Altima, heading west, entered the intersection at New Franklin Road (GA-1) about 12:24 a.m. and was struck on the left side by a northbound GMC Sierra 2500.

All four people in the Nissan died. The truck driver went to Wellstar West Georgia Medical Center with serious injuries and was never named in public. Funeral notices later listed six children who lost a parent that night.

The Nissan Spun Northwest Across GA-1

Troopers said the GMC was in the right northbound lane of GA-1 when its front end hit the Altima. The Nissan rotated several times as it traveled northwest. An unrestrained passenger in the right rear seat was thrown out before the car stopped in the right southbound lane of GA-1. The Sierra rotated the same way, left the northbound lanes, and came to rest in the median.

HOW TROOPERS DESCRIBED THE IMPACT

• The Nissan: A red Altima westbound on Wares Cross Road that, troopers said, did not stop for the red signal.
• The GMC: A white Sierra 2500 northbound on GA-1, right lane, that struck the Nissan’s left side with its front.
• The ejection: The unrestrained right-rear passenger was thrown from the Nissan during the spins.
• The rest points: The Nissan blocked the right southbound lane of GA-1; the Sierra stopped in the median.

Troup County Coroner Erin Hackley identified the four people in the Nissan as Zanquavious Swint, 23; Caleb Bonds, 25; Amanda Arrington, 32; and James Palmer, 33. All four were from LaGrange. Officials identified Swint as the Altima’s driver. The patrol said the four Nissan occupants died at the scene. Swint’s funeral home later listed his death at Wellstar West Georgia Medical Center, the same hospital that received the truck driver.

Early local coverage matched first account of the Troup County crash on the red light, the ejection, and the four deaths, before families published names, jobs, and the children left at home.

Four LaGrange Residents and the Jobs They Held

Two of the four had worked at the same employer. Palmer’s funeral notice said he drove a forklift for Dongwon Technology in Hogansville and “enjoyed going to work every day.” Swint’s notice said he had also worked at Dongwon. Bonds’s sister wrote that he had no life insurance. Arrington’s notice called her “an amazing and loving mom.”

THE FOUR WHO DIED IN THE NISSAN

Higgins Funeral Home at Hunter-Allen-Myhand handled Palmer and Arrington. Lakes-Dunson-Robertson Funeral Home handled Swint. Bonds’s family also pointed donors to Higgins in LaGrange.

THE FUNERAL WEEK IN LAGRANGE

1. March 7, 2025: Palmer’s funeral at 1:00 p.m. at Higgins, with burial at Holly Hill Memorial Park in Fairburn.
2. March 8, 2025: Arrington’s funeral at 2:00 p.m. at Higgins, with a committal at Meadoway Gardens after a 1:00 p.m. visitation.
3. March 12, 2025: Visitation for Swint from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Lakes-Dunson-Robertson.
4. March 13, 2025: Celebration of life for Swint at 2:00 p.m. at the same funeral home.

Zanquavious Zaquon Swint’s funeral notice used the name family and friends called him, Zanny. It said he was born June 24, 2001, in Carrollton to Takesia Swint and Lawerence Nelson, and that he liked fishing, basketball, and his dogs. It listed a twin brother, Jaquavious “JJ” Swint.

Amanda Arrington Left Three Children

Arrington’s notice, published by Higgins on March 3, 2025, said she was born in LaGrange to William Michael Arrington and Linda Barbour. It named three surviving children: Ayden Cadenhead, Preston Blackburn, and Brailynn Blackburn. A high-school friend wrote in the guest book that she was praying “especially her kids.”

Palmer’s notice named two children, Kenslie and L.J., and the children’s mother, Crystal Bates. It said he was born January 28, 1992, in Newnan, and that he “cherished more than life itself” being a father. Swint’s notice named one daughter, Zaleigh Zaniyah Swint. Across those three notices, six children lost a parent in one car.

Bonds’s sister, Amanda Smith of West Point, asked neighbors to help cover Caleb Bonds’s funeral costs because he had no life insurance. The page listed $4,563 raised toward $6,000 from 56 donors.

Caleb was a bright light in the lives of everyone who knew him. His infectious smile, kind spirit, and love for life will be deeply missed.

Amanda Smith, sister, Help Us Lay Caleb Bonds to Rest

Arrington’s aunt, in a separate online fundraiser, called her niece “a beautiful, kind, and amazing person taken too soon.” The four adults were 23 to 33 years old. Three of them were already raising children in Troup County and the towns around it.

Investigators Named a Dead Driver and Stopped

If troopers are right about the red light, the person they blamed was among the dead. That fact closed the usual path to a criminal defendant in the Nissan. The living driver, the one in the Sierra, was taken to the hospital and then dropped out of the public file. No arrest announcement, indictment, or charging paper in this crash has been made public.

A local argument over whose signal was red never produced a named truck driver either. Some neighbors said store cameras should have been pulled before anyone accepted the first account. None of that dispute showed up later as a charging decision.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The Nissan finding: Georgia State Patrol said the Altima failed to obey the red signal on Wares Cross Road and entered the intersection.
• The four deaths: Hackley identified Bonds, Swint, Arrington, and Palmer; troopers said the Nissan occupants died at the scene.
• The truck driver: GSP said that driver was taken to Wellstar West Georgia with serious injuries.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The Sierra driver’s name: No public identification of the GMC driver has been issued.
• A charging file: No arrest or indictment tied to this crash has been announced.
• Who sat where: Aside from Swint as the driver and one unrestrained right-rear passenger, seating for Bonds, Arrington, and Palmer was not released.

The Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team often keeps fatal files open for months. In this case the public record stops at the coroner’s names, the hospital for the truck driver, and four funerals.

Georgia’s Belt Law Stops at the Front Seat

The passenger thrown from the Nissan was in the right rear seat and was not wearing a belt. Georgia’s seat belt statute, as the Department of Driver Services summarizes it, requires that each front-seat occupant must be belted in a passenger vehicle on a public road. Child-restraint rules cover young passengers in other seats. An adult in the back seat sits outside that front-seat command.

The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, in its 2024 occupant-protection facts, found that unrestrained back-seat occupants in fatal crashes were 3.8 times more likely to die than belted back-seat occupants. Statewide, unrestrained passenger-vehicle occupants of all ages were unrestrained occupants are 5.5 times more likely to be killed than belted occupants in fatal crashes.

Troopers did not say which of the three passengers sat behind the driver. They did say the person ejected was the unrestrained right-rear passenger. That is the seating position the state studies as the most exposed when a belt is missing, and it is the position the front-seat statute does not name.

Unrestrained Occupants Face 5.5 Times the Risk

Georgia recorded 1,403 traffic deaths in 2024. Of those, 849 were passenger-vehicle occupants. Among those 849, 378 were belted, 371 were unbelted, and restraint use was unknown for 100. On the 749 cases with a known belt status, the state split the dead 50 percent belted and 50 percent unbelted. The highway-safety office estimated 536 lives would have been saved in 2024 if every passenger-vehicle occupant age 5 and older had been belted.

GEORGIA BELT USE IN THE STATE FILE

• Daytime use, 2025: Roadside counts put front-seat belt use at 87.9 percent, against a 2023 national figure of 91.9 percent.
• Fatal crashes, 2024: Half of passenger-vehicle occupants killed, among those with known belt status, were unrestrained.
• Trucks: Observed belt use was lowest in trucks, at 79.0 percent, and highest in minivans, at 95.7 percent.
• Rural risk: Rural counties showed a higher share of unrestrained passenger-vehicle deaths than the Atlanta region.

Troup County sits in that rural western band. The Wares Cross Road crash put four adults in one sedan after midnight, threw one unbelted rear passenger onto the highway, and sent a fifth person to Wellstar. The names that followed were not the truck driver’s. They were Zaleigh, Ayden, Preston, Brailynn, Kenslie, and L.J., six children whose parents were in the Nissan.