7 months later, 24-year-old booked in wrong-way crash that injured trooper
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - William Hawkins, 24, has been arrested in connection to a wrong-way crash that injured a Georgia State Patrol trooper in May.
According to arrest warrants, Hawkins, of Augusta, caused bodily harm to another person — Trooper First Class 1 Zachary Walker.
The arrest warrants state Hawkins was operating a black 2006 Toyota 4 Runner westbound in the eastbound lanes of Riverwatch Parkway in a “reckless manner and with no regards for the safety of others by driving on the wrong side of a controlled access roadway.”
Hawkins struck Walker, who was traveling on the eastbound lanes on Riverwatch Parkway, head-on, causing Walker to sustain injuries to his right leg, according to the arrest warrants.
The warrants state Walker sustains two compound fractures to his lower right leg and multiple fractures to his right ankle and foot.
Walker was transported to Augusta University Medical Center, where he underwent surgery.
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According to GSP, at 11:09 p.m. on May 31, Walker was driving traveling east on Riverwatch Parkway near mile marker 3.5 when he was hit head-on by a Toyota 4Runner that was traveling in the wrong direction.
Witnesses described what it was like to see the driver going the wrong way.
It was too close of a call for some.
“I play the thing over and over in my head every day. Because it’s like we could have been gone,” said Cheryl Hall.
One minute she was driving down Riverwatch Parkway, and then the next she says headlights were in front of her coming from the wrong way.
“When I was getting close to the curb, I noticed some lights and car lights. And I’m like, those lights look awfully close. And soon as we hit the curb was going around the curb. The car was flying around. So I was able to pull up onto that shoulder real quick. And I’m honking my horn at same time. Like they not even putting on breaks. My heart sank. And I was just shaking and stuff. And she was shaking, too,” she said.
Just minutes before the accident Mitchell Barton also saw a car driving down Riverwatch going the wrong way.
“I had to do a double take, I looked over and look back again. I was like, Man, that guy is on the wrong side of the road,” said Mitchell Barton.
Hall said: “Oh my God, that’s all I could say. And once we got home, I was like, we could have died tonight because as fast as he was going, I’m pretty sure it would have been tragic for us.”
Officials say Walker was seriously injured and had to be extracted from the vehicle.
Walker was a Richmond County deputy before reg in May of 2019, then starting at the Georgia State Patrol that same month and year.
He’s had some recent training about traffic accident management and pursuits, according to records with the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council.
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