SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WKRN) — An icy ramp in Spring Hill was the Wednesday morning site of three crashed cars and one serious injury.
It all happened around 4:15 a.m. on the ramp from Highway 396 westbound onto Route 31.
A pickup truck was the first to slide off the road there. A veteran Spring Hill officer stopped to assist the man.
While the officer was in his police cruiser writing his report, a Toyota 4Runner lost control and slammed into the police car and the pickup truck ahead of the patrol car.
The Toyota 4Runner ended up on its side, and the 58-year-old driver was pinned in the driver’s seat with a leg injury.
The veteran officer was momentarily stunned, but he is said to be okay.
His airbags deployed, so he had to climb over the center console to get out of the wrecked cruiser.
The officer then made a call to dispatch alerting them that he was okay.
Officer: “The vehicle that hit me has rolled over on its side.”
The officer was winded but approached the overturned vehicle, shouting for the driver.
Officer: “Sir, can you hear me?”
The man responded, indicating his leg was hurt and he was pinned in the crushed SUV.
Officer: “I’m just glad I put my seatbelt on when I got in.”
The pickup truck was also badly damaged, but the driver got out of the vehicle and was okay.
Officer: “We have fire on the way buddy.”
Lt. Mike Foster told News 2, “Our officer is fine, he was about to get out of the vehicle to go give the paperwork to the [pickup truck driver], so he’s lucky. He probably could not have avoided a collision from that car because of the icy ground and he couldn’t move as quick.”
Andy Cordan: “So, your guy was moments away from getting out and getting crushed?”
Lt. Foster: “Yeah, it’s a possibility. So, he got lucky.”
The only person hurt was the driver of the 4Runner who was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
As of 12 p.m. Wednesday, the driver was listed as stable and quite possibly could be discharged Wednesday.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol is the investigating agency in the crash. The report was not ready at the time of this publication.
