On Wednesday evening, just before 7:00 p.m., a multi-vehicle crash involving a tractor-trailer and five other vehicles occurred near the 360-mile marker on eastbound Interstate 40, shutting down the highway for over eight hours. The tractor-trailer, hauling steel plates, jackknifed after rear-ending an SUV, scattering the plates across the interstate. This caused other vehicles to slide into the median and barrier cables. Two people were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. A rain shower made the newly paved roadway slick, contributing to the crash. An East Roane County fire department vehicle also slid into a guardrail.

Traffic was detoured via Gallaher Road, which was already congested due to an earlier crash involving a dump truck that broke through a guardrail and fell onto Gallaher Road, killing the driver from Corryton, Tennessee, and closing that road for nearly seven hours. Eastbound traffic on Highway 70 near Kingston remained congested late into the evening. By 8:30 p.m., eastbound I-40 traffic was backed up to the Kingston exit.

No serious injuries were reported in the I-40 crash.