Loudon mom & daughter killed in wrong-way crash in NC

The women were on their way back to Tennessee when an SUV traveling the wrong way on the interstate crashed into their vehicle.

 

A mother and daughter from East Tennessee were killed in a crash this week with a driver on the wrong side of the interstate in North Carolina.

Joyce R. Smallen, 72, and her daughter Ronda Hanson, 49, both from Loudon, were heading back towards Tennessee on I-40 early Tuesday morning when their car was hit head-on by an SUV, according to the North Carolina Department of Safety.

Both women were killed in the crash.

The driver of the Jeep, Steven William Safreed of Waynesville, NC, was seriously injured. He was taken to an Asheville hospital where he's still being treated.

Troopers have still not determined why Safreed was driving east in the west bound lanes of the interstate.

The accident happened in Maggie Valley, just 23 miles from the Tennessee state line.