Georgia · Richmond County · Traffic Accident

Washington Road Accident in Augusta, GA: Deputy Phillip Wasson and Heather Michelle Lanier Killed at Redwood Drive Near Vineland Road and Woodbine Road, Richmond County

Two people were killed in an accident on Washington Road in Augusta just before 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. The Richmond County Coroner’s Office identified them as Phillip Wasson, 49, a Richmond County sheriff’s deputy of 18 years, and Heather Michelle Lanier, 57, both of Augusta. Three vehicles were involved, two other people were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and all lanes reopened around 10:15 a.m.

By Nathan Saunders Published Aug. 19, 2026, 9:15 a.m. ET Updated Aug. 23, 2026, 8:45 a.m. ET 12 min read 2 dead · all lanes reopened

What happened on Washington Road in Augusta?

Two people were killed in a three-vehicle accident on Washington Road in Augusta just before 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. Every lane was blocked.

The dead are Phillip Wasson, 49, and Heather Michelle Lanier, 57, both of Augusta, identified by the Richmond County Coroner’s Office. Wasson was a Richmond County sheriff’s deputy of 18 years, assigned to the traffic division.

A juvenile passenger in one of the vehicles and the driver of another were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. All lanes reopened around 10:15 a.m., WRDW/WAGT reported.

Wasson was off duty and was driving his daughter to school when the accident happened, The Augusta Press reported. The juvenile passenger hurt in the Silverado was his daughter, who was carried from the scene on a stretcher.

The Georgia State Patrol’s Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team is investigating. A cause has not been released, no citation or charge has been announced, and no fault has been assigned to anyone.

Who were Phillip Wasson and Heather Michelle Lanier?

Wasson, 49, and Lanier, 57, were both of Augusta. The Richmond County Coroner’s Office identified them the same day.

Wasson was pronounced dead at the scene. Lanier was taken to Wellstar MCG by EMS and pronounced dead there at 7:35 a.m.

Wasson had served the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office for 18 years and worked in its traffic division. Sheriff Eugene Brantley named him as Deputy Phillip Wasson in a written statement, which covered a second death as well: that of Deputy Jailer Michael Davis, who died on Tuesday afternoon after a medical emergency, the day before the accident. Davis had served the office for 28 years and worked D Shift at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center.

The sheriff’s statement, carried in full by WRDW/WAGT:

“In less than 24 hours, our Sheriff’s Office family has lost two of our own. Deputy Davis and Deputy Wasson gave a combined 46 years of service to this agency and to the citizens of Richmond County, but what they meant to us cannot be measured simply in years. They were deputies, coworkers, friends, and members of our family. They were our brothers. Our hearts are with the Davis and Wasson families, as well as the men and women who served beside them. I ask our community to keep both families and our Sheriff’s Office family in their prayers during the difficult days ahead.”

Wasson joined the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office in February 2008 and spent many years in its motorcycle division, The Augusta Press reported.

Law enforcement ran in the family. His father is Phil Wasson Sr., who retired from the sheriff’s office as a captain and once ran Richmond County 911; his stepmother, Dianne Wasson, led the county Board of Education’s police force and died in 1996.

The sheriff’s office gave Wasson a commendation in 2013 after he and Deputy Anthony Gregory answered a break-in on Grand Boulevard and took two of three suspects into custody; the homeowner had called 911 from a closet inside the house.

Both people named here were killed in the accident. Neither is a suspect and neither has been accused of anything.

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How did the three vehicles collide on Washington Road?

Lanier’s Ford Econoline U-Haul was headed south on Washington Road, and Wasson’s Chevrolet Silverado was headed north in the left lane, troopers told WRDW/WAGT.

The U-Haul traveled left of center and struck the Silverado head-on. The impact set the U-Haul spinning, and it struck a Nissan Sentra on the passenger side. That is three vehicles.

Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen said Wasson was traveling westbound on Washington Road and that Lanier’s vehicle crossed the center lane and struck his vehicle head-on.

The child riding in the Silverado and the Nissan’s driver were both taken to hospital, and troopers described their injuries as non-life-threatening.

Five agencies worked the scene: the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, the Richmond County Coroner’s Office, Central EMS, the Augusta Fire Department and Thomson-McDuffie Emergency Services. Firefighters were seen spreading a powder-like substance on the roadway and sweeping up glass as the scene was cleared.

Which cross street was it: Redwood Drive, Vineland Road or Woodbine Road?

All three, and they do not conflict. Troopers place the collision at Redwood Drive; it was reported near Vineland Road; and the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Georgia 511 traffic feed logged its all-lanes closure on SR 28 eastbound at Woodbine Road.

Redwood Drive, Vineland Road and Woodbine Road all cross Washington Road in the Country Club Hills neighborhood of Augusta 30904, and all three sit within 0.46 miles of one another. They describe the same short stretch of road. That stretch of Washington Road carries the State Route 28 designation, which is why the closure was logged under SR 28.

When did Washington Road reopen after the accident?

Around 10:15 a.m. All lanes of traffic were blocked for close to two hours before the road reopened, WRDW/WAGT reported. No detour route was published while the road was shut.

What does a Georgia State Patrol reconstruction investigation involve?

The Georgia State Patrol’s Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team is a unit of trooper specialists sent to serious and fatal collisions. It is a step beyond the ordinary accident investigation, and it is the reason a case like this one can stay open for months while the basic facts are already public.

The work starts at the scene, before it is cleared, which is a large part of why a road stays shut for hours after the injured have been taken away. The team documents the roadway itself: tire and skid marks, gouges and scrapes in the pavement, the spread of the debris field, the final resting position of each vehicle, sight lines, signals and the road surface. Those measurements are taken with survey equipment or a laser scanner and turned into a scale diagram.

The vehicles are then examined away from the road — brakes, steering, tires and lights — and, where a vehicle is equipped with one, its event data recorder is downloaded. That module can store the seconds before an impact, including speed, throttle, braking and seat belt use.

From the physical evidence, reconstructionists calculate speeds, angles, points of impact and the sequence and timing of what happened. The product is a written reconstruction report with a diagram, and it is a separate document from the accident report an officer files in the days after a collision. It commonly takes weeks or months to complete.

A reconstruction establishes physics, not guilt. If the findings raise the possibility of a criminal charge, they go to the district attorney, and the decision on charges rests with the district attorney. In this accident, both drivers were killed, no cause has been released, and no fault has been assigned to anyone.

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How is a coroner’s ruling different from the accident report?

They are two different documents, produced by two different agencies, answering two different questions. Both are in play here.

The Richmond County Coroner’s Office is responsible for the deaths. In Georgia, coroners are elected county officers, and the office pronounces death, identifies the deceased, notifies next of kin and rules on the cause and the manner of death. Where an autopsy is ordered in a coroner’s case, it is generally performed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Division of Forensic Sciences. The manner of death is recorded in one of a small number of categories — accident, natural, homicide, suicide or undetermined — and a ruling of accident is a medical classification, not a finding of fault against anybody.

The Georgia State Patrol is responsible for the collision. Its investigation produces the Georgia Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Report, which records the vehicles, the drivers, the road and weather conditions, the injuries, and the investigating officer’s narrative and diagram of how the vehicles came together. The form has contributing-factor entries, but those are an officer’s initial assessment for a state record, not a court’s conclusion and not a charging decision.

Because those documents sit with two different agencies, they are requested separately, they can be completed at very different times, and one can be public while the other is still open.

How does someone in Georgia get a copy of an accident report?

The report belongs to the agency that investigated. Here that is the Georgia State Patrol, so the request goes to the Georgia Department of Public Safety’s open records unit rather than to the sheriff’s office or to the coroner.

A Georgia Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Report is usually available within a few business days of the collision, once the investigating officer has filed it. Many Georgia agencies also release reports through the state’s online records vendor, which charges a fee per report and lets a requester search by date, county and name.

Access is not open to everyone. Georgia law restricts accident reports to people with a proper interest in them — a person involved in the collision, an immediate family member, a lawyer or insurer acting for one of them, a witness or a news media representative — and requesters are generally asked to state that interest in writing. Anyone else can be refused.

The reconstruction report is a different matter. While an investigation is open, an agency may withhold investigative records, so a family may receive the accident report long before any reconstruction findings are released.

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What happens after a Georgia deputy is killed?

Georgia has a standing set of procedures that follow the death of a peace officer, and they run in parallel with the collision investigation rather than waiting on it.

A death must be determined to have occurred in the line of duty before survivor benefits are paid, and that determination is made by the agency administering each benefit program rather than by the sheriff’s office. Georgia’s indemnification fund, administered by the Department of Administrative Services, pays a set benefit to the survivors of a law enforcement officer, firefighter, EMT or corrections officer killed in the line of duty. A separate federal program, the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits program run by the U.S. Department of Justice, pays its own death benefit, which survivors claim with the employing agency’s certification.

Georgia officers who die in the line of duty are honored at the Georgia Public Safety Memorial at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth, and eligible names are added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington. Departments typically hold a funeral with honors, and neighboring agencies send units for the procession.

None of that has been announced in this case. The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office has released Sheriff Eugene Brantley’s statement on the deaths of Deputy Phillip Wasson and Deputy Jailer Michael Davis.

What is not known about the Washington Road accident?

What else are people asking about the Washington Road accident?

What happened on Washington Road in Augusta, GA?
Two people were killed in an accident involving three vehicles on Washington Road in Augusta just before 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. All lanes were blocked and the road reopened around 10:15 a.m. The Richmond County Coroner's Office identified the two killed as Phillip Wasson, 49, and Heather Michelle Lanier, 57, both of Augusta.

Who was killed in the Washington Road accident in Augusta?
Phillip Wasson, 49, and Heather Michelle Lanier, 57, both of Augusta, identified by the Richmond County Coroner's Office. Wasson was pronounced dead at the scene. Lanier was taken to Wellstar MCG by EMS and pronounced dead there at 7:35 a.m.

Was Phillip Wasson a Richmond County deputy?
Yes. Wasson had been a deputy with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office for 18 years and was assigned to the traffic division. Sheriff Eugene Brantley named him as Deputy Phillip Wasson in a statement on his death.

How did the Washington Road accident in Augusta happen?
Heather Michelle Lanier’s Ford Econoline U-Haul was headed south on Washington Road and Phillip Wasson’s Chevrolet Silverado was headed north in the left lane, according to the Georgia State Patrol. The U-Haul crossed left of center and hit the Silverado head-on, and the impact sent the U-Haul spinning into a Nissan Sentra. A cause has not been released and no fault has been assigned to anyone.

How many vehicles were involved in the Washington Road accident?
Three: a Ford Econoline U-Haul, a Chevrolet Silverado and a Nissan Sentra.

Was anyone else hurt in the Washington Road accident in Augusta?
Yes. A juvenile passenger in the Chevrolet Silverado and the driver of the Nissan Sentra were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Georgia State Patrol. The juvenile passenger was Deputy Wasson's daughter. He was off duty and was driving her to school, The Augusta Press reported.

Where exactly did the Washington Road accident in Augusta happen?
Troopers place the collision on Washington Road at Redwood Drive. It was reported near Vineland Road, and the Georgia Department of Transportation's Georgia 511 traffic feed logged its all-lanes closure on SR 28 eastbound at Woodbine Road. Redwood Drive, Vineland Road and Woodbine Road all cross Washington Road in the Country Club Hills area of Augusta 30904, within about half a mile of one another, and describe the same stretch of road.

Is Washington Road in Augusta still closed, and when did it reopen?
It has reopened. All lanes of traffic were blocked and all lanes reopened around 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Who is investigating the Washington Road accident in Augusta?
The Georgia State Patrol's Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team. A cause has not been released, nobody has been cited or charged, and no fault has been assigned to anyone.

What did Sheriff Eugene Brantley say about the deaths of Deputy Phillip Wasson and Deputy Jailer Michael Davis?
Sheriff Brantley said that in less than 24 hours his office's family had lost two of its own, that Deputy Davis and Deputy Wasson gave a combined 46 years of service to the agency and to the citizens of Richmond County, and that what they meant to the agency cannot be measured simply in years. He called them deputies, coworkers, friends and members of the family, said the office's hearts are with the Davis and Wasson families and with those who served beside them, and asked the community to keep both families in their prayers. Deputy Jailer Michael Davis died on Tuesday afternoon after a medical emergency, the day before the Washington Road accident.

How do I get a copy of a Georgia accident report?
The Georgia Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Report is held by the agency that investigated the collision, which in this case is the Georgia State Patrol. Requests for a Georgia State Patrol report go to the Georgia Department of Public Safety's open records unit, and many Georgia agencies also release reports through the state's online vendor for a fee. Georgia law limits copies to people with a proper interest in the report, such as those involved, an immediate family member, a lawyer, an insurer, a witness or a news media representative.

Which agencies responded to the Washington Road accident in Augusta?
Five: the Richmond County Sheriff's Office, the Richmond County Coroner's Office, Central EMS, the Augusta Fire Department and Thomson-McDuffie Emergency Services.

More Augusta and Richmond County reports are collected on our Richmond County page, and road and accident reports from across the state are on our Georgia Traffic & Accidents page. Related earlier coverage: a woman killed on I-285 in DeKalb County while directing traffic around an earlier accident, a man killed by an 18-wheeler in an I-475 accident in Macon, and Jimmy DeLoach Parkway southbound closed at Morgan Lakes Industrial Boulevard after a steel spill.