Cusseta man, daughter killed in accident on Interstate 85

Published 7:17 am Friday, April 24, 2020

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A Cusseta man and his daughter were killed in a motor vehicle accident Thursday morning on Interstate 85.

Abbey Darnell, 16, and her father, 49-year-old David Darnell, died instantly when the vehicle they were in was struck from behind on I-85 near the 63-mile marker in the southbound lane.

According to a press release from Lee County Chief Deputy Coroner Gene Manning, the father had pulled to the side of the interstate to check on his daughter’s vehicle, which had been stranded earlier from a flat tire. A Chevrolet pickup traveling south on the interstate struck the victim’s vehicle from behind and knocked it into the stranded vehicle.

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The driver of the truck was transported by ambulance to Piedmont Midtown Medical Center in Columbus for treatment of his injuries. His condition is unknown.

Both victim’s bodies have been sent to the medical examiner’s office of the Alabama Dept. of Forensic Sciences in Montgomery for a postmortem examination. The accident remains under investigation by the Opelika Police Department and the Lee County Coroner’s Office.