Tragic Nine Vehicle Crash Kills Six in Chattanooga, TN.
The tractor-trailer driver failed to stop causing a chain reaction involving nine vehicles.
An I-75 truck accident in Tennessee on June 25th claimed the lives of six including 2 children. The crash happened at 7:10 p.m. Thursday night, around Exit 11 on northbound I-75 just north and east of Chattanooga TN.
Chattanooga Tennessee Police said eight of the nine vehicles involved in the fatal crash were stopped on I-75 due to road construction. The tractor-trailer came up from behind, was unable to stop and plowed into the vehicles.
A total of eighteen people were involved in the nine vehicle truck wreck.
Six were taken to a local hospital and six required no medical treatment, according to Chattanooga Police. Four people, including the two children, were killed in one vehicle which exploded in flames. The other killed were killed in separate cars.
The truck driver was identified by Tennessee police as 39-year-old Benjamin Scott Brewer from Kentucky. He was driving his semi-truck north from Florida. Brewer is under investigation Tennessee Police.
Chattanooga police have identified the six people killed in the nine-vehicle crash:
Ocoee Tennessee Middle School's band director, Brian Gallaher, was one of the six people killed in the crash, according to Bradley County TN Sheriff's spokesman Ed Ramsey.
Tennessee Police also identified 36-year-old Jason Ramos, an employee at Dalton State College in Georgia, as a victim of the crash.
Four people riding in a 2010 Toyota Scion were also killed when the car caught fire during the crash. Tiffany Watts, 31, and Sandra Anderson, 50, from Tennessee both died, as well as two children who were from California.
Chattanooga TN Police Chief Fred Fletcher has called the wreck "one of the worst crashes I've seen."
Tennessee Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn said workers are in the middle of a resurfacing project, and the work zone stretches from mile marker 13 to mile marker 19 on I-75 northbound. The crash happened before the construction work zone.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation said there were multiple warnings well ahead of the work zone and said that the TDOT was following all federal guidelines.