| IDs released on two ice-related deaths; Knox on
2-hour delay By Bob Fowler knoxnews.com Authorities have released the names of both area drivers killed in two wrecks during this morning's wet, freezing weather. The first driver, a group leader in an Oak Ridge National Laboratory division, died when his vehicle hit a patch of black ice and it went out of control, slamming into a large tree. Ronald Lee Parr, 55, of Lenoir City was eastbound on Bethel Valley Road near the lab when he lost control of his 2001 Chevrolet Silverado pickup at 7:09 a.m., Oak Ridge police said. The pickup, which had just left the lab's east portal, veered off the south side of the roadway after hitting the ice patch, and the driver's side hit the tree. Police said the impact pushed the cab of the vehicle three feet outward. Parr wore a seatbelt but died instantly, police said. The wreck closed the road for about an hour. According to lab officials, Parr was a group leader in the information technology services division of the lab's computing and computational sciences directorate. His wife, Pat, is also an employee of the lab. A daughter is a student at Oak Ridge High and a son is studying in Florida, according to lab officials. The second fatal wreck of the day happened a little less than three hours later in Loudon County. Barbara A. Lynch, 52, of Lenoir City died when her 1997 Mercury Cougar ran off the road and hit a utility pole, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Lynch was driving south on U.S. Highway 11 near the corner of Muddy Creek Road around 9:50 a.m. when she apparently lost control of the car, Trooper Cory Snow wrote in a report. She didn't wear a seatbelt, and the impact hurled her partly out of the car, Snow wrote. |