According to Tennessee law enforcement officials, a Knoxville traffic accident on Dec. 18 killed the 40-year-old driver of a 2003 Toyota. The Interstate 40 accident took place near Lovell Road around 3:58 a.m.
The 40-year-old man collided with a westbound Toyota SUV near the interstate’s 375 exit, authorities reported. The driver of the SUV, a 62-year-old man, had slowed down for accident-related traffic and was rear-ended by the 2003 Toyota. The 40-year-old man died at the crash site, officials said.
The two occupants of the SUV were transported to the University of Tennessee Medical Center immediately following the incident, though it does not appear either suffered serious injuries warranting ongoing medical treatment. Authorities said that the occupants in the SUV were wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash but the 62-year-old man was not. The interstate was closed for several hours and reopened later. The status of the accident investigation was not clear immediately following the incident.
Whenever car accidents cause injuries or fatalities, police by custom conduct an investigation to determine certain variables, such as the accident’s cause and whether criminal activity contributed to the incident. They may use eyewitness accounts or summon accident reconstruction investigators to help determine these variables, and the facts they ascertain, the evidence they yield and the reports they generate may later be scrutinized by a wrongful death attorney seeking material that substantiates a civil claim filed in connection with the incident. For, families of dead accident victims have a right to seek fair restitution for their various losses if there is a preponderance of proof the deadly accident was the result of another party’s actionable behavior, even if that behavior does not amount to a criminal offense.
Source: Knoxville News Sentinel , “One killed in I-40 West crash near Lovell Road”, December 18, 2014
