The Tennessee Highway Patrol has issued a preliminary crash report. It states 82-year-old John Nagata from Huntsville, Alabama was traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes (wrong way) of Interstate 24 around 5 o’clock Sunday morning near the 135 mile marker in Monteagle when his vehicle struck a minivan head-on. Nagata did not survive.
The minivan, with Wisconsin plates, was carrying a 29-year-old male driver and four passengers; a 36-year-old woman, a 17-year-old girl, a nine-year-old boy, and six-year-old girl. The 36-year-old woman was ejected from the van on impact into a grass median. She was wearing a seat belt. Both the woman and three other passengers sustained injuries, although the extent of those injuries are unknown. The driver was not injured.
State troopers say a third vehicle, a tractor trailer, was also involved in the accident. The driver was not injured.
The accident is still under investigation.
Deadly Crash on Monteagle Mountain
