Driving to school on the morning of January 22, a Lenoir City High School student wrecked his car. At about 6:15 a.m. Jeremy Weaver II took a curve at about 40 mph at the corner of Old Highway 95 and Cut Thru Road.  Here is his account of the accident:

 

“I’ve been driving my brother to school to help out my family like I have been almost every other day since Christmas break, but this morning, I was angry.  And I’m not gonna lie, I was speeding.  I was going about forty-five, and I stepped on the break before I made it to Cut Thru Road, but I was going to fast to slow down properly.  I hit the curve at about 40 miles per hour.  Then, all of the sudden, there was a sound like a semi truck blew its tires.

 

The first thing I thought to myself was that I was drifting.  I was in my top-heavy Jeep, and I was drifting.  The back end swung far out right.  Naturally my second impulse was that I was going to roll.  The moment the Jeep had started its drift I had already began trying to correct it, I was scared to death that I was going to kill myself, and more importantly, my brother who was sitting in the back seat.  As I spun the wheel to the right I realised I was facing left side of the road.  I didn’t lose consciousness, but that was the last thing that I remember seeing before I hit the tree, except for mere glimpses of dirt, grass, and branches.

 

I could see all around me in the car, but everything outside of the car further than the hood was a black darkness.  I felt the car dip to the right and I knew that I was no longer on the road.  I could barely see dirt and grass over the right side of the hood and some asphalt on the left.  I knew if I stopped there I would be able to just drive back onto the road and be on my way.  Of course, when I came to that thought some sticks and twigs appeared in front and to the right of the hood, then my train of thought shifted back over to my brother.

 

I don’t know when his terrified cries had began, but I could hear them now.  I already knew I was off the road, so when I felt the car drop again I thought we fell of the edge of the Earth.  When we finally hit the tree head-on, his fear became far more apparent.  We had finally stopped. I felt incredible relief that it was all over.  At least, that’s what I thought.  I couldn’t judge my position by the surroundings outside the car, it was still like a black bed-sheet had been draped over all the windows.  That’s when the car started moving again.  We began to fall again and that was finally the end of the trip, and it was like the black bed-sheet and been pulled off the car.  I could see to my left grass and the road and a log that the car had fallen next to, and to my right I saw sticks, branches, and dead leaves.

 

I knew I was scared by the ordeal, I could only imagine how my brother felt, who was already adverse to the idea of going anywhere with me as the driver.  I heard the words ‘I love you, Jesus!’  I was so afraid that he had been hurt.  I hurriedly spun around and asked if he was okay and he nodded and told me so.  I grabbed both his shoulders and hugged him and I never felt so happy to hear him yelling.  The second thing I told him was how sorry I was, and I told him three or four times, possibly more.  Next we had to get out, so I rolled down a window and started out.  I was almost out, when my brother reminded me of our backpacks.  I grabbed the backpack next to me, and it wasn’t the one I threw into the passenger floorboard, but the one my brother set behind my seat.  I didn’t think we had hit the tree hard enough for the backpack to be thrown to the front seat like that.  I didn’t waste time trying to figure it out then, pushed the backpack out the window, then my backpack, and I grabbed my lunch and hat and crawled out after them.  My brother emerged next with his lunch.

 

As I surveyed the damage done to my car, I figured out what had happened after I ran off the road.  When the car fell into the ditch and hit the tree, the back had lifted up off the ground, which would’ve caused the backpack to fall into the front and the third time I felt the falling sensation.  I looked around and I naively thought that I might still be able to drive my Jeep.  Once again, I was dead wrong.  The front end fell off.  All that was left was to call my parents, the police, and get everything sorted out.”

After his accident, Jeremy’s father came to take care of him and his brother, who both left the scene without even a scrape or a bruise and both made it to their respective schools on time.