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Morning accident knocks out power
Three horses killed after they ran onto Highway 17
03.27 horses accident 3
Georgia Power crews work to re-establish electric service to hundreds of homes that lost power after a semi ran off the road and clipped the utility poles after hitting three horses that had gotten onto Highway 17 north of Guyton. - photo by Photo by Pat Donahue

Charges likely won’t be filed in an accident that knocked out power to hundreds of people and resulted in the deaths of three horses Wednesday morning.

According to the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office, the driver of an 18-wheeler was headed north on Highway 17, about a mile north of the Guyton city limits, when three horses from a nearby pasture got into the road.

The driver, Norman Nease of Guyton, struck the horses around 7 a.m., and there was fog on the road. The driver, in an attempt to avoid possible southbound traffic, went off the road and hit power poles alongside Highway 17. Nease was driving a 2000 Mack truck registered to Circle R Turf Farms of Garden City.

The horses were removed and buried on their owner’s property.

Power was knocked out to around 1,100 people in Egypt, Oliver and Newington, according to Georgia Power, and was restored at 12:50 p.m.