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An eighth body has been discovered at the fire site Georgia Highway accident between a semitrailer and a van, deputy jackson county Coroner Dean Stringer said Tuesday.
According to law enforcement, the victims died Monday afternoon when a semitrailer hit a van and caught fire.
The semitrailer was coming very close to him Dodge Van on Interstate 85 in Jackson County, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) northeast atlantawhen the accident occurred, officials said.
Four other vehicles also crashed, in what officials described as a “chain reaction” after the initial collision.
A van being used by Furkids Animal Rescue shelters was one of the other vehicles involved in the accident. The driver of that van was hit and suffered head injuries, according to CEO Samantha Shelton.
“In the chaos of the debris, cages were crushed and cats began to flee,” the Cumming, Georgia-based animal rescue group wrote on its Facebook page.
Shelton said the group was taking 37 cats to a shelter in Vermont and that some of the cats escaped after the accident. As of Tuesday, two were still missing and one cat was hospitalized in critical care, Shelton said.
The identities of those killed have not been released.
“Troopers are still trying to identify and confirm the occupants,” Georgia Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Franka Young said in an email Tuesday afternoon.
Immediately after the accident, officials said that seven people in the van died at the scene. An eighth body was later discovered at the crash site, but details about where that person was found were not immediately released.
The crash is being investigated by the Georgia State Patrol’s Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team, Young said.