A man seen slumped over his steering wheel while driving Thursday afternoon died of natural causes, the Hamilton County medical examiner’s office determined.
Paul E. Daugherty, 67, had hypertensive cardiovascular disease and suffered a heart attack, according to the medical examiner’s office. He was traveling north in the 1100 block of North Holtzclaw Avenue in his 1997 Dodge 2500 when witnesses say they saw him slumped at the wheel, Chattanooga Police Department spokesman Lt. Kim Noorbergen said in a news release.
At about 2 p.m., Mr. Daugherty’s vehicle crossed into the southbound lanes of traffic, ran off the roadway across two sets of railroad tracks and stopped after striking a fence, Lt. Noorbergen said.
He was taken to Erlanger hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
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