The Kentucky State Police released on Tuesday details of the deadly multi-vehicle crash that shutdown a portion of I-24 on Monday.
According to a release, at 9:50 a.m. Kentucky State Police responded to a nine vehicle, double fatality collision at the 80 mile marker on Interstate 24 near the Pennyrile Parkway exit.
A preliminary investigation found that the Christian County Sheriff's Department was working a collision on I-24 westbound at the 79 mile marker. The westbound lanes were closed and traffic was backed up to the 80 mile marker.
39-year-old James Lee of Mulberry, Tennessee, was operating a 2000 Freightliner tractor and semi-trailer when he approached the stopped traffic. He was unable to stop and struck a 2015 Ford F-150 in the right lane. That truck was being driven by 55-year-old Mary Engrav. In the passenger seat was 61-year-old Barbara Winters-Kelly. In the right, rear passenger seat was 58-year-old Joan Lyons. All three were from Waukon, Iowa. The Christian County Coroner pronounced Engrav deceased on the scene. Lyons was flown by AirEvac to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville where she died from her injuries. Winters-Kelly was transported to Tennova Medical Center in Clarksville for non-life threatening injuries.
The impact of the collision caused Engrav's vehicle to strike the rear of a 2016 Freightliner tractor and semi-trailer in front of her. 64-year-old Jeffrey Bartlett of Gray, Georgia, was operating the vehicle and was uninjured.
Lee's vehicle swerved into the left westbound lane and struck a 2014 Chevrolet car operated by 79-year-old Ronald Logan of Lomax, Illinois, a Honda car operated by Lawrence Boykin and Kia Optima operated by 29-year-old Alicia Sheerer of Princeton, Kentucky. Logan, Boykin and Sheerer were transported to Jennie Stuart Medical Center for non-life threatening injuries.
The vehicles collided with other stopped vehicles, striking a 2011 Toyota car operated by 67-year-old Robert Kellogg Jr. or Hendersonville, Tennessee, a 2014 Honda passenger car occupied by 69-year-old Wayne Goerss and 67-year-old Kathy Goerss of St. Charles, Missouri, and then into a commercial vehicle operated by 44-year-old Jason Higgins of Elkton, Kentucky. Kellogg was transported to Jennie Stuart for non-life threatening injuries. Kathy Goerss was transported to Tennova Medical Center for non-life threatening injuries.
The other occupants of vehicles involved in the collision came to a stop in the westbound lanes of I-24 and exited their vehicles with the assistance of bystanders prior to the vehicles being engulfed by flames.
Lee was transported to Jennie Stuart Medical Center and was treated for non-life threatening injuries.
The Kentucky State Police are continuing the investigation. Numerous local law enforcement agencies assisted on scene.
