PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. — A Sevier County man was driving down I-40 West near Strawberry Plains Pike on Wednesday, hoping to get to his destination on time like most other drivers when he saw something unimaginable — a fatal accident that stopped traffic for hours.
He pulled over after the crash. It sent black smoke into the air, blocking traffic on both sides of the highway. He said he saw an SUV with three women inside involved in the crash, and so he pulled over and jumped out of his car to help pull them to safety.
"We had seen debris flying and a lot of dust and black smoke," Mike Heath said, who pulled three women to safety after a fatal crash on I-40.
Heath and one of his friends saw the three women trapped in their car as it caught fire. He said they started pulling the women out through the car's sunroof.
"I wound up tearing that Sunvisor shade-cloth off," Heath said. "And we went to work getting them gals out of there."
As they were working on getting the three passengers out of their SUV, Heath said he started looking for fire extinguishers. Truckers that were passing by helped out, giving him the extinguishers from their trucks.
"We actually wound up using five fire extinguishers to get that fire out between me and another man," Heath said.
The accident on I-40 began when a vehicle crossed over the median into oncoming traffic and hit the SUV. The first vehicle also hit a tractor-trailer and both immediately caught on fire.
The driver of the first vehicle was killed at the scene. Two of the three drivers in the second vehicle suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Traffic fatalities are up in Knox County this year. Over the last 365 days, 29 people have been killed in traffic accidents, 10 more than the previous 365 days.
The summer is considered the most dangerous time for motorists.