Eight-point buck, three-car collision, two injuries on Christmas Eve

Two people were injured in a three-car collision on Oak Ridge Turnpike on Christmas Eve after two vehicles stopped in the eastbound lanes for a deer in the roadway and a third vehicle hit the first two.

The 6:55 p.m. accident occurred just east of Wiltshire Drive. A 2007 Lexus car driven by Paula Arlene Flowers, 44, of Oak Ridge, and a 1993 Nissan pickup driven by Bryan Keith Roberts, 42, of Clinton, had stopped for an eight-point buck that had reportedly been hit in the westbound lanes of Oak Ridge Turnpike and staggered across to the eastbound lanes.

Roberts was parked behind Flowers, according to an Oak Ridge Police Department report.

A third car, a 2007 Toyota sedan driven by Michelle Bablitz, 23, of Oak Ridge, approached from the west, but she might have had a hard time seeing the two stopped vehicles due to a small rise in the roadway and fog in the area, the report said.

Bablitz hit the back of Roberts’ pickup, which collided with Flowers’ car, the report said. The pickup was pushed off the roadway on the south side, traveling down an embankment about 50 feet from the road, according to Oak Ridge police and fire department reports.

Roberts was taken by ambulance to Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge with possible injuries. Bablitz had possible injuries but was not transported, the ORPD report said.

Flowers and two teenagers in her vehicle were not injured, and an 18-year-old passenger riding with Bablitz also was not injured.

While responding to the accident, the Oak Ridge Fire Department also had to help a person who wasn’t involved in the accident who was having chest pains and had been on her way to MMC. A driver had been taking the woman to the hospital but had become stuck in traffic after the three-vehicle collision shut down the roadway, an ORFD report said.