Truck crash at gas station kills one

The accident happened at C&E Market in the community of Christiana, about 40 miles southeast of Nashville, Tennessee Highway Patrol spokeswoman Melissa McDonald said.

The truck, driven by Robert Peyton, 37, of Kentucky, was carrying air conditioners from a plant in Shelbyville, and the driver told troopers he thought he had fallen asleep at the wheel.

A Toyota pickup driven by Stacy G. Luna, 33, of Bell Buckle, pulled onto Route 231 from Route 269 and the tractor-trailer struck it in the rear, causing the smaller truck to flip twice into a field.

The semi-trailer vehicle then struck an aboveground diesel tank at the market, flipped onto its side and slid, catching fire.

The truck slid into an unoccupied vehicle, a vehicle at the fuel pumps where a customer was pumping gasoline and two other vehicles, each having one occupant. One of the latter was knocked into an unoccupied vehicle.

David Johnson, 53, of Bell Buckle, was sitting in one of the parked cars that was struck and was injured, McDonald said.

“The safety (devices) on the pumps worked as they should and shut them down,” said McDonald. “The gas pumps didn’t catch fire.”

The man who was killed was Sammy Pruitt, 63, of Bell Buckle. Peyton was critically injured and was airlifted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Luna and Johnson were taken by ground ambulance to Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro.

The crash closed the highway this morning but was reopened by noon, McDonald said.