Two people are dead as the result of a fiery head-on crash that occurred on Interstate 40 near downtown Knoxville. This accident bears striking similarity to four others that have occurred on this same 4-mile stretch of highway since March 2013 – all resulting from the actions of a wrong-way driver.
According to Knoxville News Sentinel, in the latest incident that took place July 21 around 1 a.m., 21 year old Anthony Swartz drove west into the eastbound traffic lanes, striking an oncoming tractor-trailer at mile marker 387, just west of the I-275 interchange. Truck driver Carroll Trent, 67, of Evington, VA was also killed in the crash.
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This same stretch of roadway was the location of four similar fatal crashes in 2013, all involving young men in their twenties. All these young men were killed as a result of driving into oncoming interstate traffic, and each crash occurred between the hours of 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. Alcohol was determined to be a contributing factor in at least two of the previous accidents, but there were no obvious signs of alcohol or drugs in the Swartz crash.
Authorities are working to determine a possible cause for the crash. One possibility cited by KPD Public Information Officer Darrell DeBusk to Knoxville News Sentinel may be the density of interchanges along that stretch of I-40, where numerous on and off ramps allow more opportunities for drivers to head the wrong way onto the interstate. Less than a minute before the crash, a 911 call was received indicated a sighting of Swartz's white SUV heading west onto I-40 from the James White Parkway.
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There has also been some speculation that Swartz may have been playing the trending video game “Pokemon Go” on his mobile phone at the time of the crash, a charge leveled in a Facebook post by the daughter of the second victim, truck driver Carroll Trent. According to WATE, authorities say they have found nothing at this time to indicate this was a factor.