A mother was killed when her car crumpled beneath a tractor-trailer truck on Interstate 24 Monday morning.
The three children who were with her freed themselves from the twisted metal and shattered glass of the badly crushed vehicle. None were seriously injured, authorities said.
The accident backed up traffic on I-24 East near Moccasin Bend for 11 miles. Witnesses told authorities the children, all under 10 years old, were seen pulling themselves out of the Nissan. Bystanders then led the youngsters to safety.
"There were three kids and an angel in the car," Hamilton County Emergency Medical Services Director Ken Wilkerson said.
Emergency personnel work the scene where one woman died when her car collided with a tractor trailer around 9:20 a.m. Monday on Interstate 24 eastbound. The wreck shut down the interstate for several hours.By the time the paramedics arrived, Wilkerson said, people were walking with the children down the interstate. The mother, 27-year-old Cassandra Mason of Nebraska, was pronounced dead at the scene. Firefighters had to use the motorized Jaws of Life tool to pry the driver's side door off to get to Mason.
Mason's two children and a third child - the son of her boyfriend - were checked out at a hospital, but none were seriously injured. Police said Monday afternoon that the father of Mason's two children was driving from Nebraska to pick up his children.
Police said the accident happened at 9:15 a.m. when Mason, driving about 70 mph, plowed into the back of the unmoving tractor-trailer. One witness told police Mason didn't slow down before impact. Authorities said all three children were in the back of the car and wearing seatbelts.
The tractor-trailer was stopped on the interstate because traffic was at a standstill from a two-hour-old wreck on Highway 27 near the 4th Street exit. Tennessee Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn said the early morning traffic was caused by a tanker truck that had nearly jackknifed around 7 a.m., blocking two lanes of the highway and the shoulder.
After the second wreck, traffic on I-24 was backed up all the way to Marion County. TDOT trucks with flashing lights drove past to warn drivers to stay off the interstate. The wreck was cleared and all lanes opened again by 12:51 p.m., but traffic was still backed up for eight miles at that point, Flynn said.
Contact staff writer Joy Lukachick Smith at jsmith@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.