By Shannon McFarlin WENK/WTPR News Director
Dover, Tenn.—Dover Police Chief Kim Wallace said quick thinking and good instincts saved the lives of the drivers and one passenger of the vehicles involved in this morning’s fiery crash on Hwy. 79 in Dover.
“It’s amazing. It’s a miracle,” Wallace said this morning after she returned to her office from the scene of the accident. “Both vehicles caught fire and there were only minor injuries.”
The vehicles involved were a car driven by Courtney Melton, a teacher at Grove School in Paris, and a pickup truck driven by a teenager from Dover and her passenger, another teen.
“The teen girls climbed out of the back window of their truck,” Wallace said. “I told their parents it was just quick thinking by their girls that saved their lives. I told them their girls have really good instincts. And Courtney Melton got out of her car right in time. As I said, it was just amazing.”
Wallace said the parents of one of the teens took their daughter to the hospital for treatment of a minor injury.
The truck and car collided on the highway near McDonald’s and the entrance to the LBL. Dover Police were in charge of the investigation. Wallace said Melton was driving westbound toward Paris and the truck was driving from the other direction when they collided.
Local fire department personnel extinguished the blaze, which shot high into the sky, and ambulances were called to the scene along with the Dover Police and Stewart Co. Sheriff’s Office.
Photos shared by a witness with WENK/WTPR and posted on our website and Facebook pages shows just how fiery the blaze was.
Photos by Wendy McNees Williams
Menu
