Ky. family dies on way to 'Idol' tryout

STAFF REPORT

Authorities in Georgia are investigating whether road rage caused a fiery crash that killed four people from Kentucky on their way to an "American Idol" tryout in Orlando.

The four included 40-year-old Jerome Roberts, who was driving the vehicle, his live-in girlfriend 41-year-old Cheryl Collins, their 11-year-old daughter, Auguste Roberts, and Collins' daughter, 20-year-old MaRhonda Collins, a 2007 graduate of Scott County High School in Georgetown.

The family had scheduled a Florida vacation so that MaRhonda Collins could audition for the TV show in Orlando next week, Cheryl Collins' sister, Polly Inman, told Kentucky.com.

Inman said the allegations that Roberts exhibited aggression toward another driver just before the wreck aren't consistent with the man she described as a doting father figure to Auguste and MaRhonda.

Lowndes County Coroner Bill Watson confirmed that police in Georgia are investigating whether road rage contributed to the incident.

The Valdosta Daily Times quoted Georgia State Patrol officials as saying that the driver of a black Honda was on the phone with Lowndes County 911 reporting the aggressive behavior of the driver of a silver Saturn reportedly driven by Roberts when both vehicles were struck by a Penske rental truck.

The collision occurred at about 2:30 a.m. Thursday in the southbound lanes on Interstate 75 about 16 miles north of the Florida line.

The Georgia newspaper reported that after the collision, the three vehicles involved traveled 30 yards and came to rest in the middle lane of southbound I-75. The Saturn exploded into flames.

The people in the other vehicles were not injured.

MaRhonda had gone to the show's tryouts in Louisville last year but didn't get picked.