Oak Ridge Today

Smoke from brush fires settles in Oak Ridge; burn ban, air quality alert in effect

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A brown-gray haze thickened over Oak Ridge on Monday, Nov. 7, 2016, and the smell of smoke hung in the air as firefighters battled blazes in East Tennessee and across the state. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was updated at 5:25 p.m.

A brown-gray haze thickened over Oak Ridge on Monday and the smell of smoke hung in the air as firefighters battled blazes in East Tennessee and across the state.

The haze was visible at least into west Knox County.

Anderson County and Oak Ridge both issued reminders that a burn ban is in effect. The Oak Ridge Police Department sent out a notice that the smoke in the air is due to numerous brush fires throughout the state, and the department asked residents to not call 911 to inquire about the cause.

The Tennessee Division of Forestry reported 96 active fires on Sunday afternoon, with 8,665 acres burned. (See a list of the fires here and a map here.)

Three active fires were reported in Anderson County, with 1,485 acres burned. [Read more…]

TBI agent to discuss human sex trafficking in Tennessee during Tuesday lunch

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Human sex trafficking has been defined as modern day slavery, a travesty that is hidden in plain sight. It happens in every zip code and crosses all socioeconomic, educational, and racial lines. Tennessee is no exception.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent-in-Charge Margie Quinn will give her perspective on human sex trafficking in Tennessee at the next Lunch with the League on Tuesday, November 1. The program will be at noon in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, which is located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Quinn will discuss what’s being done to combat human sex trafficking in Tennessee, a press release said. [Read more…]

Two killed, four injured in four-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway

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A Georgia man and a Powell man who were in a vehicle that fled a traffic stop in Knox County were killed in a four-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway in Anderson County late Friday morning, authorities said. A short section of Clinton Highway was closed for about five hours between Mehaffey Road and Old Clinton Pike as the Tennessee Highway Patrol investigated the fatal crash, which also injured four people. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

A Georgia man and a Powell man who were in a vehicle that fled a traffic stop in Knox County were killed in a four-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway in Anderson County late Friday morning, authorities said.

Four other people were injured in the crash, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The men who died were driver Roy Simmons, 29, of Helena, Georgia, and passenger Charles Miller, 25, of Powell, Tennessee, the THP said in a fatal crash report. The two men were in a 2001 Ford TSS driven by Simmons.

The crash was reported at about 11:32 a.m. Friday on Clinton Highway near the intersection with Old Clinton Pike in Anderson County, near the Anderson-Knox county line, the THP said.

The fatal crash report said a Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputy was trying to stop the car driven by Simmons in the northbound lanes of Clinton Highway near West Beaver Creek in Knox County, but the car fled. While fleeing, the car lost control and crossed the center line while going left around a curve, the crash report said. [Read more…]

THP investigates fatal crash on Clinton Highway near Anderson-Knox county line

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A short section of Clinton Highway was closed at Mehaffey Road going into Knox County on Friday, Sept. 30, 2016 as the Tennessee Highway Patrol investigated a fatal crash. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 5:40 p.m.

Clinton Highway was shut down in both directions near the Anderson-Knox county line on Friday afternoon as the Tennessee Highway Patrol investigated a fatal crash, authorities said.

The road will be closed “until further notice,” the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department said early Friday afternoon. “Please avoid this area.”

It’s a multi-vehicle crash, said Mark Nagi of the Tennessee Department of Transportation. [Read more…]

Letter: Motorcyclist thanks medical responders, travelers, THP Trooper Kennedy

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Note: This letter was submitted by John Such. He was part of the motorcycle group involved in one of the two crashes that injured eight people on Interstate 75 near Rocky Top on Saturday morning.

I was part of the mororcycle group yesterday involved in the crash on I-75. The semi crash happened immediately after the bikes went down. Cars traveling southbound stopped to either look and/or offer assistance to our riders down. The semi that was unable to stop crashed into traffic that had slowed down or stopped.

I can’t thank all those medical responders and travelers who offered hope, encouragement, water—anything they could to comfort all those in need. [Read more…]

Father allegedly flees crash where injured son is trapped, then flees hospital nude, THP says

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Jacob Daniel Baxter

Jacob Daniel Baxter

 

An Anderson County man allegedly fled a crash where his juvenile son, who was partially ejected and injured, was trapped between a van and a barn, and the man later fled from a hospital nude, authorities said.

The crash was reported at about 11:29 p.m. Saturday, September 3, on Old Lake City Highway.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol said Jacob Daniel Baxter, 33, of Black Oak Road in Anderson County, was driving west in a white 1999 Dodge Caravan on Old Lake City Highway when he lost control while going round a curve. The van went off the right side of the road and stopped at a metal barn on the side of the road, according to the THP.

A 15-year-old boy, who is identified as Baxter’s son, was trapped between the van and the barn, according to arrest warrants filed by the THP in Anderson County General Sessions Court, Division I, in Clinton.

While Anderson County Rescue Squad personnel were helping to remove the trapped boy, Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Isaiah Lloyd began searching for the driver. [Read more…]

Eight injured in motorcycle, car-semi crashes on I-75 in Anderson County

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The UT Lifestar II helicopter and Lifestar IV helicopter are pictured at top right and bottom left on Interstate 75 in Anderson County on Saturday morning, Sept. 10, 2016, after one crash involving four motorcycles and another involving a semi and two other vehicles were reported. Authorities said eight people were injured in the two crashes. (Photo courtesy UT Lifestar)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 12:10 p.m. Sept. 11.

Six people were injured in one crash involving four motorcycles and two more were injured in a second crash involving two vehicles and a semi on Interstate 75 in Anderson County on Saturday morning, authorities said.

The two crashes occurred about 30 minutes apart in the northbound and southbound lanes of I-75 near mile marker 127, near Rocky Top (the former Lake City).

Two University of Tennessee Lifestar medical helicopters responded, and all four lanes were temporarily closed.

The first crash was reported at about 10:16 a.m, according to a Tennessee Highway Patrol preliminary crash report.

Four Harley Davidson motorcycles were traveling north in one lane of I-75 at mile marker 127 when the first motorcycle, a 2003 model driven by George Suver, 70, left the right shoulder and then swerved back into the lane, the THP said. [Read more…]

Update: TWRA identifies drowning victim as Norris man

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Rescuers recovered the body of a missing Anderson County boater in Norris Lake on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016. (Photo by TWRA)

 

Information from WYSH Radio/Oak Ridge Today

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has identified the man who drowned on Norris Lake on Monday as Roy McClenney Jr., 71, of Norris.

McClenney’s body was recovered from 46 feet of water at around 6:40 p.m. Monday.

The TWRA said they were called shortly after noon when the man jumped off of a pontoon boat anchored in a cove near Sugar Camp Lane in Maynardville in Union County and never resurfaced.

Rescue crews from Union County and Knoxville joined TWRA in the search for the man, who was located with help from a remote operated vehicle, or ROV. TWRA officers located the man’s body, and divers from the Knoxville Rescue Squad made the recovery. [Read more…]

Rescuers recover body of missing Anderson County boater in Norris Lake

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Rescuers recovered the body of a missing Anderson County boater in Norris Lake on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016. (Photo by TWRA)

 

The body of an Anderson County boater who went missing in a cove near Sugar Camp Lane in Maynardville was recovered under water in Norris Lake on Monday evening, authorities said.

At about 6:40 p.m. Monday, September 5, rescue crews recovered the man’s body in about 46 feet of water, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said. The 71-year-old Anderson County man went missing around noon Monday after jumping into the lake from an anchored pontoon boat.  Witnesses onboard the boat say that the man went under the water and never resurfaced.

Rescue crews from Union County and Knoxville joined TWRA in the search for the man, who was located with help from a remote operated vehicle, or ROV. TWRA officers located the man’s body, and divers from the Knoxville Rescue Squad made the recovery. [Read more…]

Vehicular homicide, other charges sent to grand jury in Clinton Highway crash

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Scott Gray, who has been charged with vehicular homicide, among other counts, is pictured above in Anderson County General Sessions Court, Division I, in Clinton on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

CLINTON—Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers testified Thursday that a driver charged with vehicular homicide smelled of alcohol and said he had been drinking and had taken two anti-anxiety pills before a two-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway in April that resulted in the death of a 23-year-old Heiskell woman.

There was a half-empty bottle of whiskey found between the driver’s seat and the rocker panel of the 1993 Eagle four-door sedan, according to testimony by a crash witness and THP Trooper Isaiah Lloyd, the lead trooper in the investigation. Lloyd testified that he saw a glass marijuana pipe with residue in the center console of the car, a marijuana joint inside a prescription bottle, and at least six beer cans on the passenger floorboard of the car, although it wasn’t clear if the cans were empty or full.

The THP said Scott Gray, 26, of Knoxville, was driving north on Clinton Highway in the Eagle sedan near Mehaffey Road on Thursday evening, April 28, when he turned into the path of a southbound 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicle driven by Kimberly Williamson, 32, of Knoxville. The SUV driven by Williamson hit the car driven by Gray.

The passenger side of the Eagle had significant damage, and passenger Jessica Miner Taylor, 23, of Heiskell, was trapped and critically injured. After she was extricated, she was flown by a Lifestar medical helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, authorities said. She was immediately taken into the operating room because her bladder was torn from the crash, Lloyd said in arrest warrants filed in May.

Gray was taken by ambulance to UT Medical Center the day of the crash. Williamson had minor injuries, and she was taken in a personal vehicle to Tennova North, where she was treated and released, authorities said earlier.

Miner died from her injuries about a week after the crash, on Friday, May 6, according to her obituary. [Read more…]

TBI: Knoxville man arrested after threatening former Rockwood mayor

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Thomas Pierce

Thomas Pierce

A Knoxville man was arrested Friday after he made threats against a former mayor of Rockwood and was found with several guns in his vehicle, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Saturday.

TBI special agents helped the Rockwood Police Department and the Ninth District Attorney General’s office investigate threats made by Thomas William Pierce, 59, against a former Rockwood mayor, a press release said.

Ninth District Attorney General Russell Johnson asked the TBI to help, the press release said.

Pierce is a former long-time Rockwood city employee, and he is set to go on trial in Roane County for theft of money from the City of Rockwood, the TBI said. [Read more…]

Harriman man killed in Roane County crash

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A Harriman man died in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 61 in Roane County on Friday, authorities said.

Martin J. Palenski, 37, was not wearing a seat belt, and he was ejected when the car he was driving rolled after hitting an embankment at about 12:36 p.m. Friday, the Tennessee Highway Patrol said.

The THP said Palenski was driving a 2002 Ford Taurus west on Highway 61. While going around a righthand curve, the Taurus went off the left side of the road, a crash report said. Palenski overcorrected and hit an embankment on the right side of the road, the THP said. The Taurus then rolled, and Palenski was ejected, the THP said. [Read more…]