Oak Ridge Today

Teen rescued from cave in Claxton

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A teenager was rescued from a cave in Claxton on Thursday, July 27, 2017, and he was taken to a hospital to be evaluated for back and ankle pain, authorities said. (Photo by Anderson County Volunteer Rescue Squad)

A teenager was rescued from a cave in Claxton on Thursday, July 27, 2017, and he was taken to a hospital to be evaluated for back and ankle pain, authorities said. (Photo by Anderson County Volunteer Rescue Squad)

 

Note: This story was updated at 1:30 p.m. July 29.

A teenager was rescued from a cave in Claxton on Thursday, and he was taken to a hospital to be evaluated for back and ankle pain, authorities said.

The 16-year-old boy had called 911 to say he was in a cave off Mehaffey Road in Claxton, and he was not able to find his way out, according to an Anderson County Sheriff’s Department incident report.

The cave was in woods behind Spring Hill Baptist Church.

A family member said the boy had previously asked to go into the cave, the report said. On Thursday, he told his grandmother that he was going to a neighbor’s house to mow the lawn but instead went to the cave alone, the report 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…]

TDOT cancels proposed changes on Clinton Highway due to county opposition

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TDOT Clinton Highway Improvements Mehaffey Road July 7 2016

As proposed, a one-third mile section of Clinton Highway south of Mehaffey Road—the section of road to the right of Mehaffey Road in the map above—would have been one lane in each direction with a center turn lane. The road to the north of Mehaffey Road—the area to the left—would have been two lanes in the southbound lane, a center turn lane, and one lane in the northbound lane. The changes would have been made as part of a resurfacing project in 2017, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said in a meeting in Claxton on Thursday, July 7, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 12:30 p.m.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has canceled proposed changes meant to improve safety on Clinton Highway between Edgemoor Road and the Knox County line. The proposed safety improvements in Claxton have been canceled due to opposition from Anderson County, and after residents objected, including in a petition.

TDOT presented its proposal during a July 7 meeting at the Claxton Community Center. Among other changes, the project would have reduced the four-lane highway to a three-lane roadway with a passing lane in one direction, wider shoulders, and a continuous center turn lane as part of a resurfacing project scheduled for next year.

TDOT said there have been 10 fatal crashes in 10 years on that 2.6-mile section of Clinton Highway between Edgemoor Road and the Anderson County-Knox County line.

“That’s pretty high in a small section of roadway,” Nathan Vatter, TDOT regional traffic engineer, said after the July presentation. “It’s a significant number of fatalities.”

There was another meeting this month to give comments to TDOT. Anderson County Commissioner Tracy Wandell, one of two county commissioners who represent Claxton, provided notes to TDOT. Among the highlights: [Read more…]

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

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Scott-Gray-Hearing-Aug-11-2016

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…]

Public meeting on Thursday on proposed Clinton Highway improvements

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Clinton Highway 10-Year Crash Map

A 10-year crash map shows 10 fatal crashes in 10 years in a 2.6-mile section of Clinton Highway between Edgemoor Road and the Anderson County-Knox County line. (Map by TDOT)

 

Oak Ridge Today/WYSH Radio

There will be an opportunity for the public to comment on Thursday on proposed improvements to a 2.6-mile stretch of Clinton Highway from Edgemoor Road to the Knox County line, where 10 people have died in crashes in the past decade.

Comments will be documented and transmitted to the Tennessee Department of Transportation. The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, August 11, in Room 312 at the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton.

During a public meeting in July, TDOT presented its proposal to resurface and realign a 2.6-mile stretch of Clinton Highway—Highway 25W—from Edgemoor Road to the Knox County line. TDOT said it developed the proposal after reviewing crash data that showed that between 2006 and last year, 10 fatal accidents and 11 others involving serious injuries have occurred on that stretch of highway. That section of roadway includes a hilly, curvy area with no median or center lane. The roadway shoulders are limited in some spots, the speed limit is 50 mph, and there are several areas with no buffers between traffic traveling north and south, meaning vehicles move past each other around curves while moving in opposite directions. [Read more…]

Vehicular homicide charge added to DUI charge after passenger dies

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Scott Allen Gray

Scott Allen Gray

 

A Knoxville man who admitted to drinking for two days straight and taking two Klonopins has now been charged with vehicular homicide, in addition to driving under the influence, after his 23-year-old passenger, Jessica Miner Taylor, of Heiskell, died about one week after a two-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway in Anderson County in April, authorities said.

Scott Allen Gray, 26, was initially charged with vehicular assault and DUI (second offense) after the two-vehicle crash injured three people at the intersection of Clinton Highway and Mehaffey Road on Thursday, April 28.

The vehicular homicide charge was added after Jessica Miner Taylor, who had been trapped in the car, died this month.

The THP said Gray was driving north on Clinton Highway in a 1993 Eagle Vision sedan on 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. [Read more…]

Driver charged in two-vehicle crash that injured three on Thursday

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Clinton-Highway-Crash-April-28-2016

Three people were injured in a two-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway at Mehaffey Road at about 5:27 p.m. Thursday, April 28, 2016. The vehicles included the Jeep Grand Cherokee pictured at left center and the Eagle Vision that is partially obscured behind an emergency vehicle at right. The driver of the Eagle has been charged by the THP. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

CLAXTON—A Knoxville man was charged with vehicular assault and driving under the influence after a two-vehicle crash injured three people on Clinton Highway on Thursday, authorities said.

Scott Gray, 26, of Knoxville, also faces eight more charges that allege additional violations: open container, simple possession of Schedule IV drugs, drug paraphernalia, due care, improper turn, failure to yield, financial responsibility, and a registration violation, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, which investigated the crash. The DUI offense is a second offense, according to a THP preliminary crash report.

The THP responded to the crash on Clinton Highway at Mehaffey Road at 5:27 p.m. Thursday. Mehaffey Road is a short drive past Edgemoor Road headed toward Knoxville on Clinton Highway. Headed toward Knoxville, it’s near the beginning of a hilly, curvy stretch of Clinton Highway that winds into Knox County from Anderson County.

Authorities said Gray was driving north on Clinton Highway in a 1993 Eagle Vision sedan when he turned into the path of a southbound 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicle driven by Kimberly Williamson, 32, of Knoxville. [Read more…]

Teen charged with attempted murder in alleged stabbing

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Dakota Michael Rogers

Dakota Michael Rogers

A Knoxville teenager has been charged with attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault in an alleged stabbing after a fight ensued when he went to pick up a car on Mehaffey Road in eastern Anderson County on March 24, authorities said.

Dakota Michael Rogers, 19, allegedly went to the home at about 9 p.m. March 24 to pay for a car and repay a female resident who had loaned him money for it, Anderson County Sheriff’s Department investigator Mark Bolton said in affidavits filed in General Sessions Court in Clinton.

But Rogers, who was arrested Monday, allegedly got into a fight with a male resident. It started in the living room and then spilled out onto the porch, according to the affidavits. Bolton said the two men do not get along.

The victim said the two men were separated by a porch rail, and when he walked to it, Rogers stabbed him in the belly near his belly button. The victim said he he did not see the knife. [Read more…]