Driver dies at scene of roll-over accident
By Mark Boxley
of The Daily Times Staff
An 82-year-old Loudon man was
killed Saturday night in a single-vehicle roll-over
accident on Calderwood Highway near Murphy Road.
According to Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Ernest
Marion, Elmer T. Summey, 82, Loudon, was driving a
minivan southbound on Calderwood Highway (U.S. 129) when
he lost control of the vehicle and left the roadway at
about 7:11 p.m. The van traveled off the right side of
the road for about 102 feet before it hit a utility pole
on the side of the road. The driver-side of the van hit
the pole and the window shattered upon impact -- sending
a hail of broken glass onto the roadway -- and the
driver's face hit the pole, killing him instantly,
Marion said.
The force of the impact spun the van until it was facing
the opposite direction and caused it to flip several
times before it came to rest on its tires in a field
next to the road approximately 78 feet from the pole.
Summey was not wearing a seat belt and was found in the
passenger seat when authorities arrived at the scene. A
physician living nearby -- an anesthesiologist at
University of Tennessee Medical Center -- declared the
Summey dead at the scene, Marion said.
The driver's wife, Virginia Summey, 69, was in the car
with him and was taken by Rural/Metro Ambulance Service
to Blount Memorial Hospital and then to University of
Tennessee Medical Center. The extent of her injuries and
her condition were not available Saturday.
Maryville motorist Ken Yopp and his wife Lisa were
driving in the opposite direction before the accident
and said the van was driving erratically -- enough to
cause Ken Yopp, who was driving, to pull over to the
side of the road while the van passed.
"He was off both sides of the road," Ken Yopp said.
His wife called 9-1-1 "immediately" to report the van to
authorities, and moments later "we saw the dust," Lisa
Yopp said.
They turned the car around and couldn't see much at
first, but knew it was serious, Ken Yopp said.
"The dust was boiling and we knew what it was," he said.
No other vehicles were involved in the accident.
Authorities are not sure if speed was a factor in the
accident.
It doesn't appear Elmer Summey hit the brakes before
hitting the pole, Marion said.
Saturday's accident was the 13th traffic fatality in
Blount County for 2008 -- and the second in two weeks on
Calderwood Highway. A motorcyclist was killed in a wreck
on Sept. 6 on a section of Calderwood Highway known as
the Dragon, an 11.1-mile section of the highway ending
at the North Carolina border that has 318 curves.
There were 21 traffic fatalities in Blount County by
this point in 2007.