Kentucky State Police have released the details of a nine vehicle pile-up, double fatality wreck that occurred on Interstate 24 in southern Christian County Monday morning. Multiple emergency, fire and rescue personnel were dispatched to the tragic wreck around 9:50am near the Lafayette Road overpass.
A state police preliminary investigation revealed that westbound traffic was stopped and backed up to the 80 mile marker due to a wreck at the 79 mile marker being worked by the Christian County Sheriff’s Office. Police say the driver of a tractor-trailer, 39-year old James Lee of Mulberry, Tennessee, was unable to stop and crashed into a pickup truck in the right lane driven by 55-year old Mary Engrav of Waukon, Iowa. Engrav had two passengers in her truck, 61-year old Barbara Winters-Kelly of Waterville, Iowa, who was in the front passenger seat, and her sister 58-year old Joan Lyons of Waukon, Iowa, who was in the right rear passenger seat. Engrav was pronounced dead at the scene, while her sister, Lyons, was flown by helicopter to Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville where she succumbed to her injuries Monday afternoon. Winters-Kelly was transported by ambulance to Tennova Medical Center in Clarksville for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.
Police say the impact from the semi pushed Engrav’s vehicle into the rear of a trailer of another semi stopped in front of her driven by 64-year old Jeffrey Bartlett of Gray, Georgia, who was uninjured in the wreck.
Lee’s semi then reportedly swerved to the left lane and hit three other vehicles. State Police identified the drivers as 79-year old Ronald Logan of Lomax, Illinois, Lawrence Boykin (no age or address listed on the report), and 29-year old Alicia Sheerer of Princeton, Kentucky. Police indicate they were transported by ambulance to Jennie Stuart Medical Center for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.
State Police say the vehicles continued to collide with other stopped vehicles. The driver’s of those vehicles are identified as 67-year old Robert Kellogg Jr., of Hendersonville, Tennessee, 69-year old Wayne Goerss and his passenger, 67-year old Kathy Goerss, both of St. Charles, Missouri, and the driver of another commercial motor vehicle, 44-year old Jason Higgins, of Elkton, Kentucky. Kellogg was transported by ambulance to Jennie Stuart Medical Center and Kathy Goerss was transported to Tennova Medical Center. Both suffered non-life threatening injuries and Higgins was unhurt.
Police indicate the vehicles involved in the crash came to a final rest in the westbound lanes of I-24, while Kellogg and Sheerer’s vehicles came to rest near Lee’s semi. Fortunately, all three occupants of these vehicles were able to get out of their vehicles with the assistance of bystanders before the vehicles became fully engulfed by flames.
Lee was transported to Jennie Stuart Medical Center, where police say he was treated for non-life threatening injuries.
State police are continuing to investigate the crash.
