The Tennessee Highway Patrol has released the names of four people killed Friday when a trailer came loose from a dump truck on Highway 58 in Meigs County.
THP accident investigators said Andrew Blackford, 38, of Murfreesboro, and Samantha Norris, 37, of Maynardville, were in the first car struck by the careening trailer. Their 2008 Nissan came to rest in the center of the roadway.
Christopher Denton, 36, and Paula Stevens, 62, both of Dunlap, were in a 1995 Nissan that overturned and came to rest on its top.
All four people died at the scene, the THP report said.
The search continues for the driver of the truck, 34-year-old John Wesley Bennett, of Decatur, Tenn. After the trailer came loose and slammed into the oncoming cars, he drove another quarter-mile, then stopped the truck, jumped out and fled into the woods. Multiple law enforcement agencies have been searching for him since.