Family members say a 24-year-old Smithville man is recovering at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after being critically injured in a wreck in Baxter as he drove home from work on Friday, January 2.
According to the Herald-Citizen, Cody Atnip was extricated from the wreckage of the accident, which happened around 8:30 p.m., and transported by ambulance to Cookeville Regional Medical Center, where he was stabilized before being taken by ambulance to Vanderbilt.
The crash occurred on Nashville Highway, as Atnip was traveling westbound toward Baxter in a maroon Nissan Maxima, according to reports by Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Joseph Williams.
A silver Nissan Altima being driven by Earl Thompson of Baxter was traveling eastbound toward Cookeville, and was attempting to make a left turn into the Baxter Pizza Hut parking lot.
Thompson’s Altima had yielded to Atnip’s oncoming Maxima, but the driver of a blue Dodge truck also traveling eastbound on the same roadway apparently failed to yield.
The blue pickup, driven by Patrick Green of Castalian Springs, swerved into the left lane, simultaneously rear-ending Thompson’s silver Altima and hitting Atnip’s maroon Maxima head-on, according to Trooper Williams’ report.
No one else was seriously injured.
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