A total of eight vehicles were involved in three separate crashes in a 30-minute time frame on Interstate-81 in Greene County this afternoon.
The first wreck occurred around 12:30 PM. A Honda Odyssey driven by 46-year-old Eddie Horne of Tennessee swerved to avoid slowing traffic reacting to commercial trucks entering the scale facility at the 21 mile marker. Horne then struck the guardrail off the shoulder of the roadway. A Toyota Tundra driven by 44-year-old Emanoel Rodrigo De Souza of North Carolina then struck the rear of Horne’s van, which set off a chain reaction. A Ford F-150 driven by 20-year-old Jason Cochran of West Virginia then struck the rear of the Tundra and a Dodge Ram truck driven by 28-year-old Billy Hall from Tennessee hit the rear of the F-150.
A passenger in Horne’s van, 44-year-old Heather Horne, and a juvenile passenger in that vehicle were injured. All others were uninjured, according to the report from the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Following that crash, another accident occurred. A second Toyota Tundra driven by 38-year-old Samuel Carroll from Tennessee collided with a Subaru Forester driven by 66-year-old Andy Stidham of Kentucky after Stidham had slowed for backed up traffic due to the first accident. No injuries were reported. Carroll was charged for driving without a license.
A third accident then occurred when a Kia Sportage driven by 49-year-old James Pinzino of Tennessee was stopped in the outside lane of I-81 southbound due to traffic backup. A silver truck merged into the outside lane and side swiped the Sportage’s left front fender in the process. The silver truck then left the scene of the crash. No other information was obtained at the scene to identify the driver of the hit-and-run vehicle. Pinzino was charged for driving without a license. No injuries were reported.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol investigated all three accidents.
