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Fiery North Hall crash injures deputy, inmates
State patrol reports deputy ran stop sign, received warning
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A Whitfield County Sheriff's Office car and a vehicle towing a camper crashed Monday morning at Clarks Bridge Road and Lula Road/Ga. 52 .

A Whitfield County sheriff’s deputy ran a stop sign, injuring herself and two inmates in a fiery North Hall wreck Monday morning, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

Deputy Rosalia Pacheco-Hernandez, 23, who was taking the inmates to Arrendale State Prison in Alto, was driving east at 8 a.m. on Lula Road/Ga. 52, just south of Clermont, when she ran the stop sign at Clarks Bridge Road/Ga. 284.

The deputy wasn’t charged but was issued a warning citation, Georgia State Patrol spokesman Cpl. J.S. Munger said.

She struck a Dodge pickup truck towing a camper that was traveling north on Ga. 284.

The patrol car caught fire after the collision, and the camper separated from the pickup and overturned on its right side, the state patrol said.

Hall County Fire Services units arrived on the scene to find flames showing, spokesman Capt. Zachary Brackett said.

The deputy and inmates Amanda Nicole Townsend, 33, of Tunnel Hill, and Hillary Marie Mchan, 30, of Dalton, were taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville.

Hospital officials said they were treated and released.

Neither the pickup driver, Steven Lawrence Gallo, 57, of Lakeworth, Fla., nor a passenger in his truck, Renee Therese Gallo, 57, also of Lakeworth, were injured.