NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A 73-year-old man from Springfield died and a 7-year-old ended up in critical condition after a head-on collision Thursday evening on Whites Creek Pike in north Nashville.
The wreck was reported around 5:20 p.m., with the two vehicles meeting in the 7900 block of the pike. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said its early findings show the older driver was heading north in a 2019 Ford Fiesta when, for reasons investigators have not determined, the car drifted over the double yellow center line into the southbound lane.
There it struck a 2015 Ford Escape traveling south. The Fiesta driver died at the scene. The child, a passenger in the Escape, was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with critical injuries. The SUV’s 25-year-old driver and a 26-year-old woman in the front passenger seat were also taken to Vanderbilt, where their injuries were described as not life-threatening. All three people from the Escape went to the same hospital, while the Fiesta had only its driver on board, according to the police account.
The pike carries a double yellow line through that stretch, meaning neither direction is allowed to pass. Police have not said whether speed played any part, and no witnesses have been publicly identified.
Police said nothing at the scene pointed to impairment by either driver, and everyone involved is believed to have been buckled in. Investigators have listed the preliminary cause as the Fiesta driver’s failure to stay in his lane of travel.
No charges were announced, and the department said the crash remains under investigation. Police have not said how long the stretch of Whites Creek Pike was closed while crews cleared the vehicles.
Section: More Nashville TN crime news
Filed under: Nashville TN Traffic News
