By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Area driving instructor dies following Friday car wreck
Deb Sorrow taught defensive driving for 25 years
Deb Sorrow
Deb Sorrow taught defensive driving for 25 years. Sorrow also was the owner and operator of Preferred Cleaning Service and was a school bus driver for 17 years, serving students at Wauka Mountain Elementary School and North Hall middle and high schools.

Friends and loved ones aren’t just mourning Deb Sorrow’s sudden passing Friday.

They also are struggling with the notion that Sorrow, who had spent much of her life teaching others how to drive safely, herself died following a car wreck in North Hall.

“For somebody to dedicate their life (to defensive driving) and then to die this way, it’s just heartbreaking,” said Katie Wilcoxson, owner of DUI and Defensive Driving of Midtown in Gainesville.

Sorrow, 58, of Gainesville, had taught defensive driving for 25 years, she said.

“She was so passionate about getting people to drive responsibly, be safe on the highway (and not) take risks,” Wilcoxson said.

Sorrow was driving a 2008 Mitsubishi Outlander on Clarks Bridge Road when she was struck by a Toyota Avalon driven by Jessica Wilkerson, 25, of Auburn, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

Wilkerson, heading southbound on Clarks Bridge, “lost control while negotiating a left-hand curve,” State Patrol Cpl. Dallas Van Scoten has said.

The car crossed the double yellow line and struck the passenger side of Sorrow’s vehicle, Van Scoten said.

The wreck happened at Honeysuckle Road about 11:15 a.m. Friday.

Sorrow was taken to the hospital, where she died later from a heart attack, authorities said.

“There will have to be an autopsy done to see if that heart attack is causation from that wreck,” Van Scoten said.

Wilkerson was determined to be at fault, the trooper said.

Charges are pending at this time.

Meanwhile, funeral services have been set for Wednesday for Sorrow, who is survived by two daughters and a son, among other relatives.

Sorrow also was the owner and operator of Preferred Cleaning Service and was a school bus driver for 17 years, serving students at Wauka Mountain Elementary School and North Hall middle and high schools.