The Oliver Springs Police Department has identified the driver who died and the passenger who escaped after a Mazda MX3 coupe crashed into this pond on England Drive on Tuesday night.
Note: This story was last updated at 5:30 p.m.
The Oliver Springs Police Department has identified the woman who died and the passenger who escaped after a car crashed into a pond on England Drive on Tuesday night.
Driver Amy Hall, 23, of Oliver Springs, ran off the road into the private pond sometime before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, when the OSPD was notified of the accident.
“Members of the Oliver Springs police and fire departments responded and learned that a vehicle was submerged in the pond and one person, Donna McMillian, age 54, was able to get out of the vehicle and make it out of the water—and reported that another person was still in the vehicle,” Oliver Springs Police Chief Kenneth Morgan said in a Wednesday press release. “Members of the Fire Department entered the water but were unable to locate the vehicle.”
Morgan said the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Dive Team was called for assistance. Sheriff Paul White, Oliver Springs Fireman Adam Daugherty, and Marlow Fireman T.J. Giles entered the water and were able to locate Hall and the red two-door Mazda MX3 coupe at about 10 p.m. and help remove them with the help of two tow trucks about an hour later. White said divers, who emerged from the water covered in dark silt, could only see a few inches in front of their goggles under water.
Hall was pronounced dead by Anderson County Emergency Medical Services and taken by ambulance to the University of Tennessee Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy, the press release said.
It took rescuers a few hours to find Amy Hall and the Mazda MX3 she had been driving and remove them from the pond. Hall was removed from the car and placed into an ambulance at about 11:17 p.m., and her vehicle was then towed away.
On Tuesday night, Morgan said authorities were checking into a report that Hall may have had seizures before the crash.
McMillian is also an Oliver Springs resident, Morgan said. Marcia Pemberton, whose family owns the England Road property and built the dam that created the pond more than two decades ago, pulled McMillian from the water after coming out of her house and hearing screams at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Pemberton initially thought the screams might have been playful shouts from her stepson and his wife, but she soon realized they were cries for help.
She ran to the 18-foot-deep pond, where McMillian was clinging to a tree, unable to get out because of the steep banks.
Emergency responders came from several departments. Besides the dive team and the Oliver Springs police and fire departments, they included members of the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department, Marlow Fire Department, and Anderson County Volunteer Rescue Squad. The Regional Forensic Center also responded.
“This was a tragic situation and could not have been completed without their help,” Morgan said of the other responders.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
The pond is near the sharp bend on England Drive pictured in the map below:
Kay Williamson says
Amy Hall was 23 year old mother of two son. The family has no burial insurance. Please help by donations to Sharp Funeral Home in Oliver Springs by check or cash, note in memo it’s for Amy Hall. thank you
johnhuotari says
Thank you for the additional information, Kay.
Dave Smith says
Even the most basic auto insurance coverage should provide bodily-injury liability that pays her funeral costs and for medical treatment provided to her passenger.
johnhuotari says
Thank you, Dave. I wasn’t aware of that type of coverage on auto insurance and never asked about ours but will now.
Kay Williamson says
Thank you Dave also. I did tell the family to check her policy.