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Crews work to clean up wreckage from a tanker truck that slid off a Route 33 bridge Monday morning. The driver of the truck was killed. (Allison Hunter | WOUB News)

Man Killed In Weather-Related Athens County Crash

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ATHENS — A Georgia man died after a truck he was driving slid off an ice-covered roadway and went off a bridge.

Jeffery Byrd, 56, of Twin City, Georgia, was driving a 2014 Freightliner truck at about 5 a.m. Monday morning when he lost control of the truck on a Route 33 bridge over Richland Avenue. The truck was hauling a tanker of high fructose corn syrup, according to a press release by the Ohio State Highway Patrol Athens Post.

Westbound U.S. Route 33

“The vehicle slid off the left side of the road striking a guardrail and riding up and over a concrete bridge rail,” the release stated.

After going over the rail, the truck landed on Richland Avenue. Byrd was pronounced dead at the scene by a member of the Athens County Coroner’s Office.

Athens County remains under a level 2 snow emergency, according to the Athens County Sheriff’s Office.

“Only those who feel it necessary to drive should be out on the roadways,” a release from the sheriff’s office stated.