I-24 wreck injures Ooltewah women

The crash that shut down Interstate 24 near Manchester today injured an Ooltewah woman and her passenger.

Christie Bowman, 40, and her female passenger were injured when Bowman's 2002 Nissan Frontier ran off the road near mile marker 116 at about 1:30 p.m. CDT, said Tennessee Department of Safety spokeswoman Dalya Qualls.

The vehicle hit a wrecker that was parked there because of a previous crash, Qualls said. Then it spun back into the travel lane, where a tractor trailer hit it in the rear and pushed it into the median.

Qualls said neither woman's injuries were believed to be life-threatening, but they were flown to Erlanger hospital in Chattanooga. She said the truck driver was unhurt.

The crash blocked eastbound lanes for about 50 minutes, she said.

A Times Free Press employee traveling through the area shortly before 4 p.m. EDT said a tractor-trailer was overturned off the right side of the highway and at least two helicopters landed and took off again while he was sitting in traffic.

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