Greyhound Bus, Other Crashes Leave 5 Dead and Dozens Injured in Tennessee

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Vehicle crashes across Tennessee in the last few days have left five people dead and dozens more injured.

In the tourist town of Gatlinburg, seven people, including two pedestrians, were injured in a multivehicle crash on Sunday. The accident occurred at about 4:20 p.m., when a minivan travelling through the middle of the pedestrian-heavy downtown area accelerated unexpectedly, striking a person in a crosswalk before colliding with several other vehicles, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

One of the struck vehicles hit a roadside sign that fell and injured a second pedestrian. Five other people inside two different vehicles were injured as well.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol is investigating, and early indications suggest the accident may have been caused by a medical emergency, according to the agency.

Gatlinburg is located the mountains of East Tennessee. It sits between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the country’s most visited national park, and Pigeon Forge, home of Dollywood.

In Madison County in western Tennessee, two people were killed and many more were injured when a Greyhound bus and a passenger vehicle crashed, authorities said.

According to a statement from the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the crash occurred Monday evening on a highway near Jackson. Nearly 40 people were injured, and roughly 27 of them were taken by ambulance to receive further medical care, according to a social media post by Madison County Fire Rescue.

At least one of the people killed was in the passenger vehicle, according to Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security special agent and spokesperson Jason Pack.

In its investigation, the Tennessee Highway Patrol has reconstructed the crash scene and is rebuilding the mechanical systems of the bus. The agency says its investigation remains ongoing and further details were limited as of Tuesday afternoon.

A Greyhound spokesperson told news outlets that the bus was traveling from Memphis to Nashville with 32 passengers, the driver and a backup driver on board, adding that most of the people taken to the hospital had since been released.

And in Memphis, a mom and her two sons were killed in a pileup on Interstate 40. Tonya Cannady and her two sons, Barry and Scott, were identified as the victims by her employer, Youth Villages, WREG TV news reported.