A wreck in Big Canoe last Tuesday claimed the life of a Talking Rock man and increased the number of deaths on Dawson County roads in 2008 to nine.

Randall Faucett, 52, was killed when the dump truck he was driving overturned at Wild Turkey and Red Fox roads inside Big Canoe on Oct. 14.

According to authorities, he was delivering gravel for a road repayment project when the incident occurred.

Survivors include his wife, Debra Faucett of Talking Rock; son, Ronnie Faucett of Ellijay; stepson, Gabe Duckett of Marble Hill; daughters, Michelle Carver and Dinky Roberts, both of Ellijay; stepdaughter, Kim Duckett of Jasper.

Faucett’s death is the county’s ninth fatality of 2008.

Two Dawson County teens were killed on Nix Bridge Road in January when the car they were in crossed the centerline and collided with a school bus.

A month later, Christopher Sams and his unborn daughter were killed in a collision near the Dawson-Forsyth County line on Hwy. 53. 

The next day, an elderly woman was killed when she careened down an embankment in west Dawson County. 

On April 10, a Forsyth County woman was killed when an unlicensed driver in a log truck lost control on Kelly Bridge Road, followed by the death of a Blue Ridge man in May, who lost control of his vehicle on Hwy. 183.

Patrick “Steven” Combs, of Dawsonville, was killed in the early morning hours of Sept. 10 in a one-vehicle crash at the intersection of Hwy. 53 and Hugh Stowers Road in Dawson County. Combs was traveling west on Hwy. 53 when authorities say he left the roadway and struck an embankment.

Five people died on Dawson County roads in 2007.