The woman who witnessed her niece die after being hit by a car and hurled off the side of an I-20 overpass to the ground below in suburban Atlanta on New Year’s Day said it was a traumatic reminder of the way her parents died 50 years ago.
Police reported that 43-year-old Melody Coburn died in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day after being struck by a car on I-20 eastbound near Fulton Industrial Boulevard.
Coburn was on the highway getting her car towed after it broke down. She was talking to the tow truck driver when a car sped right into her.
Coburn’s aunt, Victoria Ann Woodson Kingston, told WSB-TV that she and her husband were at the scene to pick Coburn up when they saw her get hit.
“When I saw it happen, the first thing I did was jump out [of] the car and scream for her to see where she was,” Kingston said. “When she got hit, I saw her spirit rise and I knew she was gone.”
The driver who hit Coburn stayed at the scene, but Kingston said there was no reason that the driver shouldn’t have seen them.
“We had our lights on. We had our flashers on. And the tow truck light was spiraling,” she recalled.
Kingston told WSB-TV that her parents died almost the same exact way when she was 17 after a drunk driver crashed into them in New Jersey. Police are still investigating if the driver who hit Coburn was drunk or under the influence of other substances at the time of the crash.
“It just brings this back up again 50 years later,” Kingston said.
Kingston said Coburn was a fun-loving woman with a love for fitness and bodybuilding who looked forward to achieving her goals for 2024.
“She said she was stepping into a new phase and she put hashtag claim it. That was the last post she made,” Kingston said.
The Vibe Ride Indoor Cycle Studio that first welcomed Coburn as a member in 2015 before she became a certified indoor cycling coach a year later, posted a heartfelt statement on Instagram to honor Coburn’s memory, which in part read:
If you were blessed to know Melody Coburn, then you know her kind intentions, her heart of gold and her honest soul. If you are part of a community, it is because Mel built it. She was generous with her kindness and love, and the littlest things meant so much to her. She meant so much to all of us at Vibe Ride. Her energy, passion and motivation are so authentic and so inspiring.
Police say they are still investigating the incident. The driver and the passenger in his car were transported to the hospital for evaluation and treatment. However, authorities say they didn’t suffer any life-threatening injuries.
