Crime & Safety

Truck Driver Charged in Fatal Cobb Crash

A Marietta motorist died Friday morning in an accident on Cobb Parkway that shut down traffic for several hours.

A Florida truck driver has been charged with second-degree vehicular homicide after an early-morning accident on Cobb Parkway killed a Marietta motorist and halted traffic on the busy thoroughfare for several hours.

Marietta Police said James David Rast, Jr., 47, of Jay, Fla., who also was charged with failure to yield, is being held in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on a $250,000 bond. The victim was identified by police as Mahmoud Dabdoub, 49, of Marietta.

Police said Rast was driving a Freightliner tractor trailer around 7:15 a.m. when he attempted to turn southbound onto Cobb Parkway from Industrial Park Drive. But a Chevrolet Express van driven by Dabdoub that was in the northbound lane struck the left side of the tractor trailer.

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Traffic in both directions on Cobb Parkway was shut down between Industrial Park Drive and Allgood Road until around 10 a.m. as the accident investigation began, according to police.

Anyone with information about the accident should call Marietta Police Officer Michael Gardner at 770-794-5266.

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