The Loudon County Grand Jury indicted two individuals on May 11 for fatal crashes on Interstate 40 in the Roane/Loudon County area, a stretch that has experienced a high number of serious incidents amid increased traffic from post-Covid population growth. In the first case, Ashley Rae Jones, 32, of Cumberland County, faces charges of criminally negligent homicide and other traffic violations for a crash eastbound on I-40 near the Lenoir City/Melton Hill exit. Distracted while reaching for a vape pen, she failed to brake and rear-ended a Geo Tracker driven by a 17-year-old from Lenoir City, pushing it into a commercial truck trailer and killing the teen instantly. Jones was unharmed.

In the second incident nearby, Ethan Collins was charged with reckless vehicular homicide and related offenses after allegedly driving his pickup truck at a high rate of speed and in a reckless manner westbound on I-40. He struck the rear of another pickup, sending it across the median into an eastbound vehicle and killing occupants Kimberly Morquecho, 36, and Guadalupe Rodriguez, 35, both from McAllen, Texas, along with several of their pets. The driver of the struck pickup, 73-year-old Darrell Eggers of Maryville, was seriously injured. Both crashes were captured on video—Jones’s on a tractor-trailer dashcam and Collins’s on a TDOT camera—which helped investigators and the grand jury.

Both defendants have posted $100,000 bonds and are scheduled for arraignment on May 29. The cases serve as a reminder for heightened caution on East Tennessee interstates during the busy Memorial Day Weekend, with advice to slow down, avoid distractions and impaired driving, remain patient amid Tennessee’s elevated rates of aggressive driving and road rage, and exercise care on expected wet roads.