Car flies off ridge into tree, killing one in fiery wreckage, Tennessee officials say
A deadly car crash caused a fire when it flew off a ridge in the early-morning hours of Thursday, Sept. 21, according to Tennessee emergency personnel.
A car exiting the East Ridge tunnels in Chattanooga “jumped the median,” flew through the embankment’s guardrails and hit a tree, causing the car to erupt into flames, according to a report from the Chattanooga Fire Department. The fall was around 70 feet, the report says.
“The vehicle was driving at a high rate of speed coming through the tunnels and did not make the turn,” the report says.
One person was found dead in the car, according to the report.
Firefighters were dispatched to the scene at 12:40 a.m. and when they arrived, the car was engulfed in flames, the report says. To put out the fire, firefighters used a ladder down the embankment to hose it down, according to the report.
As Chattanooga firefighters made their way down to put out the fire, they encountered “steep terrain and vegetation overgrowth” that made their descent difficult, the fire department said in a Sept. 21 Facebook post.
Emergency crews were at the scene for several hours, officials said.
Earlier this month, a teenager was killed in a car crash at the same area, as reported by News Channel 9. The driver told police that they thought the road would continue straight after exiting the tunnel instead of curving, which caused them to break through the guardrails and fall down the embankment. The backseat passenger in the car was killed.
There have been 12 car crashes involving serious injuries or fatalities in Chattanooga during September, according to the Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security website. A third of those crashes involved a death.
Chattanooga is about 120 miles northwest of Atlanta, Georgia.
