Authorities say wearing a seat belt might have saved a 41-year-old Alabama woman who was killed when she was thrown from the car in a rollover crash along Interstate 75 in Loudon County.
Jennifer M. Torbert of Pell City, Ala., died in the single-vehicle crash, reported at 11:35 a.m. Tuesday at mile marker 80 near Lenoir City, according to a Tennessee Highway Patrol incident report.
Torbert was a passenger in a 2008 Nissan Sentra headed north when the Sentra veered into the median and rolled before coming to rest near the southbound lanes.
Fellow passenger Meghan Torbert, 19, of Pell City, Ala., was also thrown from the vehicle. She was not wearing a seat belt, either, the report states.
A third passenger, Braylon C. Newton, 7, of Pell City, was belted in the front seat.
Authorities found evidence of drug use by the driver, Jerry P. Newton, 66, also of Pell City, according to THP Trooper Paul Clendenen's report.
Criminal charges are pending, according to the report.
The conditions of the three injured survivors were not immediately available Wednesday.
More details as they develop online and in Thursday's News Sentinel.