Driving rainstorm causes 2-car crash
Three people were injured, one critically, Wednesday evening when a blinding rainstorm caused a wreck on Highway 8.
The most seriously injured victim, back seat passenger Jonathan L. McPeake, 24, was airlifted from River Park Hospital to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville by LifeFlight helicopter. He was injured along with fellow passengers Roger W. Conroy, 23, and Tina M. Weaks, 30, all of McMinnville, both of whom were treated at River Park.
All three victims along with a fourth passenger, who escaped injury, were riding in a 1992 Mercury Topaz driven by Lisa D. Bagsby, 24, of Murfreesboro.
According to Highway Patrolman Darrell Gribble, Bagsby pulled from Shellsford Road into the path of a 1983 Chevy Monte Carlo driven by Aaron N. Sullivan, 37, of Spencer, who was heading away from McMinnville on Highway 8. The Bagsby vehicle was struck broadside by the Sullivan vehicle as it crossed Highway 8, with the main impact coming to the rear passenger compartment of the car, just behind the driver’s door, explaining how the driver escaped injury while the back-seat passengers were all injured.
Bagsby told investigators she looked before pulling past the stop sign and onto Highway 8 but did not see the oncoming vehicle due to the heavy rain. Gribble confirmed there was torrential rain in the area. Sullivan escaped injury although his vehicle suffered extensive front-end damage in the T-bone type crash.