A 36-year-old driver involved in a fatal Sunday crash on Amnicola Highway has been charged with vehicular homicide after police say he ran a red light while under the influence of narcotics, killing a 59-year-old man.
Police said Timothy Nerren was driving a Jeep south on Amnicola Highway around 3:20 p.m. Sunday when he ran a red light and crashed into an Audi with two people inside. The driver of the Audi, Gregory Kirton, had a green light and was merging south from the Highway 153 exit ramp.
Kirton was killed in the crash. A woman in the car, identified as his wife, 26-year-old Vivana Kirton, survived but was seriously injured, according to court records. She was in fair condition Monday, according to an Erlanger spokeswoman.
The incident was the 14th fatal crash in Chattanooga so far this year, according to police.
Officers conducted a field sobriety test on Nerren and he failed multiple parts, investigators said. He couldn’t balance, had droopy eyelids, took the wrong number of steps and couldn’t stand on one leg.
He was also asked to estimate when 30 seconds had passed, but thought 22 seconds was 30 seconds, according to an affidavit. An investigator noted that the short time might indicate a “fast internal clock and possibly a stimulant.”
Investigators believed he was on some sort of narcotic stimulant.
Nerren is charged with vehicular homicide, driving under the influence of narcotics and violation of a traffic control device. He was booked into the Hamilton County Jail on a $50,000 bond and remained in custody Monday.
Officers who came upon the wreck were on their way to respond to a report of an impaired person in a parking lot on Bonny Oaks Drive when they encountered the wreck. Officers noted Nerren’s Jeep matched the description of the reported impaired person.
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