Friday, March 26, 2010

Nurse Dies In Vietnam Vets Blvd. Wreck Vanberbilt Nurse Killed After Leaving Work; Son Prepares For NCAA Tournament





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Nurse Dies In Vietnam Vets Blvd. Wreck

Vanberbilt Nurse Killed After Leaving Work; Son Prepares For NCAA Tournament

POSTED: 6:08 am CDT March 15,2010
UPDATED: 9:59 pm CDT March 15,2010

A local nurse who is the mother of a Murray State basketball player was killed Monday morning after a Dumpster came loose from a truck on Vietnam Veterans Boulevard.
Related: 6 p.m. Report | Images | Noon Report | Morning Report


At about 5:30 a.m., an Allied Waste Services truck lost its trailer, which was carrying an empty Dumpster, according to investigators. This caused a chain-reaction crash involving a tractor-trailer and a car. When that load detached, two cars smashed into the trailer.One of the drivers, Vanderbilt nurse Freeda Simmons, 50, died from her injuries at about 7:30 a.m.Minutes after the first round of collisions, the driver of a tractor-trailer carrying Pepsi products smashed into the empty Dumpster and hit a retaining wall.

There was no indication that any of the drivers were impaired at the time of the wreck.Investigators with the Tennessee Highway Patrol are trying to determine whether or not the Allied Waste trailer was properly attached.D ocuments show that this is the first wreck of its kind that the company has had in the past decade.The other drivers involved are expected to survive.

Murray State Player Will Travel To Game Despite Loss
Of Mother Simmons' son is a Murray State basketball player, whose team plays in the first round of the NCAA tournament this week against Vanderbilt.Murray State spokesman Dave Winder told The Associated Press that Simmons' son, Picasso Simmons, is planni ng to go to the Racers' game Thursday. The Murray, Ky., team is leaving Tuesday for San Jose, Calif., where the NCAA West Regional game will be held.Winder said Simmons' mother, who ran track and field at Murray in the early 1980s, had been happy her son was going to the tournament and that he wanted to honor her by going with the team.



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