Brown, 27, dies in Jeep accident

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

The driver was killed and his passengers injured Saturday evening when a Jeep plunged down a ravine off Old Highway 8, ejecting all four victims as it rolled.

The fatally injured driver, Eli Todd Brown, 27, was found dead at the scene by rescue crews. His passengers, Kara L. Dishman, 21, Haley Dishman, 17, and Andy K. Thompson, 18, were all injured but have since been released from the hospital. The elder Dishman girl will require additional surgeries on her badly injured right arm, according to her father, Wendell Dishman, who was at her bedside at Erlanger Hospital Monday.

“We’re looking at several more surgeries,” Dishman said. “It was a very bad injury to her arm.”

The younger Dishman required several stitches and staples to close her wounds as did Thompson, who also suffered a concussion, a leg injury, and a severe injury to one of his ears. Kara Dishman was the last released from the hospital, discharged from Erlanger to the care of home health yesterday.

The accident happened just before 9 p.m. Saturday on Old Highway 8, a narrow winding road which parallels Highway 8 running up the north side of Harrison Ferry Mountain. A preliminary investigation by Highway Patrolman Stan Hollandsworth revealed Brown was traveling up the mountain when his Jeep CJ5 ran off the road and over a ravine.

The Jeep then overturned, ejecting all four occupants, before coming to rest about 60 feet from the road. Hollandsworth said the cause of the accident remains under investigation, noting there was no evidence of alcohol or drugs. Lawmen are reportedly looking at the possibility of mechanical failure as a cause of the crash.

The remote accident left rescue crews scrambling to evacuate the survivors from the side of the mountain as access was limited due to the size of the road. Bringing the victims up the embankment was also a challenge.

The road itself was scheduled to be closed last year due to safety concerns and problems with illegal dumping. However, some landowners in the area successfully fought the road closure.