A multiple vehicle crash has closed the right lane of northbound traffic on Interstate 75 in Bradley County, according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Smartway website.UPDATE Feb. 8 at 9:18 p.m.
State troopers have identified the two people killed in an early Wednesday car crash in Bradley County.
Driver Harry Leo Johnson, 66, of Gainesville, Fla., and passenger James Anthony Crosby, 60, of Jacksonville, Fla., were killed when the Volvo semitrailer they were using to haul mail rear-ended another semi carrying logs.
The collision occurred at 1:22 a.m. Wednesday along the northbound lanes of I-75 near the 24 mile marker in Bradley County.
The driver of the truck hauling the logs, 43-year-old Kenny R. Barkley of Waynesboro, Tenn., was not injured.
Barkley was traveling down I-75 when a tractor trailer ahead of him blew a tire, according to a Tennessee Highway Patrol report issued Wednesday evening.
As he attempted to get over onto the shoulder of the interstate, the mail truck driven by Johnson struck him from the rear “without braking,” the report says.
“Both vehicles continued for a few hundred yards before getting onto the right shoulder.”
The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. Later, Crosby was found in the sleeper portion of the semi’s cab and pronounced dead.
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Original report: A spokesperson with the Tennessee Highway Patrol confirms that two people are dead after an overnight crash in Bradley County.
A multiple vehicle crash blocked the right lane of northbound traffic early this morning on Interstate 75 in Bradley County, according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Smartway website.
The crash at mile marker 24 was reported about 1:35 a.m.
The crash has since been cleared.