Clayton woman dies as a result of White County wreck

CLEVELAND – A Rabun County woman died following a two-vehicle wreck in White County on Tuesday.

Joan Gertrude Steele, 81, of Clayton was killed when her 2010 Ford Focus, which was traveling east on Georgia Highway 115 was struck by a 2003 Dodge Ram pickup truck driven by 54-year-old William Andrew Daniel of Cleveland.

Gordy Wright, public information officer for the Georgia State Patrol, said Sunday the wreck happened when Daniel’s Dodge truck pulled from the parking lot of The Cottage House Restaurant and struck the Ford with its left front.

Steele was airlifted from the area of the nearby Chattahoochee Baptist Church on Georgia Highway 384 (Duncan Bridge Road) to Grady Memorial Hospital, where she later died.

Daniel was taken by ambulance to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville.

Charges in the crash are pending the follow-up investigation by GSP's Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team from Gainesville, Wright said.