Update: Police Working To Find Cause of Fatal I-85 Accident

Images: Police examine the scene Thursday of the fatal accident on I-85 (GCPD).

DULUTH, Ga. -- The Gwinnett County police say they have not yet determined the cause of a deadly collision between a car and a tractor-trailer on Interstate 85 that closed down part of the highway Thursday afternoon.

Speed and alcohol "do not appear to be contributing factors" in the collision, the police said in a statement Friday. They said the car was traveling in a Peach Pass Lane when the driver suddenly lost control and swerved across three lanes, into the path of the tractor-trailer.

The police said they don't know what caused the driver of the car to lose control of the vehicle. Crash investigators will examine it to determine whether it had any defects that might have led to the accident.

Two individuals who died at the scene were passengers in the back seat of the white passenger car, and the police said their names will be released pending the notification of their relatives. None of the people who died in the accident or sustained injuries were children, the police said.

A back-seat passenger and front-seat passenger in the car were injured in the crash, along with the truck driver, Shawn Padgett, 34, of Simpsonville, S.C., according to the police statement. All three were taken to the Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville.

The driver of the car was uninjured, the police said. They described him as a man in his late 40s, but did not release his name or other details. They also did not release a further description of the car, such as year, make and model.

Responding to the scene at 2:19 p.m. Thursday on I-85 just north of Pleasant Hill Road, police closed down the commuter artery's northbound lanes. They were reopened at around 4:30 p.m., the Gwinnett police said.

A police accident investigator determined that at the time of the wreck, the car and the tractor-trailer rig were traveling north on I-85, with the car in the far left lane (the Peach Pass Lane) and the tractor-trailer three lanes to the right, according to the police statement. The Peach Pass Lane is a high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane, reserved for vehicles with an electronic pass or carrying three or more passengers.

The tractor-trailer was hauling around 20 tons of steel, WXIA-TV 11Alive reported.

"For reasons unknown, the driver of the white passenger car lost control of his vehicle," the police said. He swerved to the right, into the path of the tractor-trailer, and the rig struck the car.