The death of a 31-year-old Cleveland man in a single-vehicle wreck Friday night was the sixth fatality on Dawson County roads in 2009 and first since the spring.

The wreck happened about 10:30 p.m. on Harmony Church Road, near Lake Lanier and the Hall County line.

Authorities said Clinton “Clint” David Crawford died after he lost control of his 2006 Chevy Trailblazer and went down an embankment.

A spokeswoman for the Georgia State Patrol post in Cumming, which is handling the investigation, said Crawford went off the road twice before the SUV flipped and landed against a tree.

Dawson County Sheriff’s Lt. Tony Wooten said Sgt. Jenny Belafi was traveling west on Harmony Church Road when the eastbound SUV forced her and another vehicle off the road.

Belafi turned around in an attempt to stop the Trailblazer, but was not able to catch up before it went off the road, Wooten said.

The state patrol is investigating the wreck. It has not been determined if alcohol or drugs were a factor.

Crawford, who was traveling alone, is the sixth traffic death on Dawson County roads this year. There were 10 in 2008.

The previous fatal wreck occurred in May.

Travis R. Puckett, 63, of Dawsonville, was waiting to turn onto Hwy. 136 from Ga. 400 south May 12 when the driver of a Ford Ranger struck a utility truck, which then collided with Puckett’s 1986 Chevrolet pickup.

Two days earlier, a 54-year-old Marble Hill man died from injuries in a motorcycle wreck at Hwy. 53 and Elliott Family Parkway.

Three local teenagers also lost their lives in separate wrecks between February and April.

Kolton Findley, 18, was killed April 17 in a one-vehicle wreck on Hugh Stowers Road.

Nearly a month earlier, on March 11, 16-year-old Jake Fausett, died when he lost control of his vehicle on Hwy. 136 on the way home from school.

A two-vehicle wreck on Feb. 23 on Coltrane Road claimed the life of 18-year-old Tyler Hutchison.