SPARTA, Ga. — Two sisters are dead after a deadly crash in Hancock County. They are 16- and 15-year-old Alana and Lauren McClain.
Georgia State Patrol says it happened around 8:30 p.m. Sunday night at Route 15 and Fairmont Road.
They say the driver of the Lexus the girls were riding in ran a stop sign. We went out to Sparta to speak to the girls' family and friends.
"Lauren had a smile that lights up the world, and Alana was so kind and so sweet -- they both were. They were just awesome girls,” Lavone Tucker says.
Lavone Tucker is the McClain sisters' aunt. She had just gotten home Sunday when she got the call that they'd died in an accident.
"I'm numb to it -- numb to the fact that they're both gone. It's just not real, it seems like it's not real,” she says.
Tucker says that both Lauren and Alana were responsible girls who loved to dance and sing.
Alana was supposed to go to her first prom this year.
"They were really loved and I'm so sorry what happened to them, but the family is going to try to stick together, to be together,” Tucker says.
Both girls worked at a Sparta restaurant for a year. Shankar "Gee" Patel, the owner of Central Park, says that they were hardworking and helpful, and he and his wife treated them like family.
"One day, her mom come to pick them up. My wife said, 'If you want us to adopt your daughter, we'd be glad to adopt your child because that's like my daughter right now and we love them,'” he says.
Patel says he was in shock.
"Our children have grown up and gone to the colleges, so they was our child and we loved them, really, and we miss both really bad,” Patel says.
Tucker says other parents should take this as a cautionary tale.
"Be cautious of your children, what they're doing, you know? Because it only takes a second for something to happen,” Tucker says.
At the site of the crash, the store owner of the Mini Food Mart says that the crash sounded like an earthquake, and when he came out of the store to see what had happened, he said the car crashed into his gate. Then, he called 911.
The Lexus driver was taken to an Augusta hospital with serious injuries. The Georgia State Patrol is still investigating.