3 In Station Wagon,

Including A Baby,

Survive Collision

On Newport Hwy.

By BILL JONES

Staff Writer

A Greene County man was fatally injured about 7:45 p.m. Sunday when the motorcycle he was riding crossed the center line of the Newport Highway and collided head-on with a station wagon.

Trooper Mike Moberley, who is investigating the fatal collision said Aric A. Jennings, 43, of Harold Cemetery Road, was riding a 2008 Harley-Davidson motorcycle north on the Newport Highway (U.S. 321) when he lost control in a curve, causing the cycle to veer across the centerline of the roadway and collide head-on with a southbound 1995 Mercury station wagon driven by Melody Duncan, 42, of Moccasin Lane, Greeneville.

In the collision, Jennings was ejected from the motorcycle, the trooper said.

In addition to fatally injuring Jennings, Trooper Moberley said, the collision injured Duncan and her passenger, Tara Harville, 20, also of Moccasin Lane. Both were taken to Laughlin Memorial Hospital, where they were treated and released, according to a hospital spokesman.

Duncan's son, Zackrah Duncan, 5 months, who had been seated in a child-restraint seat, escaped injury in the collision, Trooper Moberley said.

The trooper also noted that Duncan and Harville were wearing seat belts and that deployment of the station wagon's air bags also helped protect the two women from more serious injury.

Witnesses told the THP that Jennings may have been "racing" with another motorcycle prior to the collision, according to Trooper Moberley. However, the trooper said he had been unable to confirm the witness's statement.

"Speed was a factor," Trooper Moberley said.

Just prior to colliding with the station wagon, witnesses told Trooper Moberley, Jennings "laid the motorcycle down" onto its side, the trooper said. But the motorcycle still skidded into the front of the station wagon, resulting in fatal injuries to Jennings.

Jennings and the two occupants of the station wagon were treated at the scene by Greene County-Greeneville Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel.

Medical personnel from a Wings Air Rescue helicopter that had been dispatched to the accident scene also helped treat Jennings at the scene, emergency personnel said.

Jennings was transported by ambulance to Takoma Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, emergency personnel said.

Also responding to the accident scene on Sunday night were units of the Greene County Sheriff's Department and the DeBusk Volunteer Fire Department, which established a landing zone of the Wings helicopter and assisted with traffic control.

The Newport Highway was blocked for about an hour after the fatal collision while the on-scene investigation was completed and the heavily damaged vehicles were removed by tow trucks.

The fatal crash remains under investigation by the Tennessee Highway Patrol.