I-40 Crash: All Lanes Reopen Following Deadly Accident


Following the fatal I-40 crash yesterday which left eight people dead and 14 injured, all lanes on the Jefferson County highway have been reopened.

At just before 5 am this morning, Tennessee Highway Patrolmen opened the lanes to all traffic, having taken evidence from the site of the crash.

In the I-40 crash, a church bus from North Carolina was driving eastbound on the road when its front tire blew out, sending the bus across the median and into a tractor and an SUV.

The accident, which occurred at around 2pm, saw the tractor burst into flames and the bus overturn. Two of the injured people in the crash are in critical condition in hospital, seven in serious condition and five are stable.

Sgt. Bill Miller of the THP said in a statement: “We have eight bodies at the scene. We hope and pray there are no more. Our thoughts and prayers go out to these families.”

Several passengers were extracted from the overturned bus by rescue teams who arrived at the scene within about five minutes of the crash. Authorities didn’t say what the ages of the victims were but confirmed that no minors were involved.

Lt. Don Boshears also spoke to reporters about the rescue effort on behalf of the THP: “It takes a lot to reconstruct that. Fall Branch has a team, Knoxville has a team and we’ll help each other with that. As far as resources, we’ve sent a lot of our troopers up there to help them, and we’ll help each other out.”

The church bus was returning from an event called the Fall Jubilee in Gatlinburg. The people on the bus were part of a “young at heart” group of over 55s.

The Fall Jubilee Conference released a statement about the I-40 crash saying: “Our thoughts are with our friends at Front Street Baptist Church in their tragic loss. Pastor Johnny Hunt, the congregation at First Baptist Church Woodstock, and all the Jubilee team have you in our prayers.”

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