According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, two Tennessee Department of Transportation salt trucks where spreading salt on I-24 eastbound at the 105 mile marker on Thursday morning around 4:35am. As they were attempting to clear snow and ice from I-24 a tractor-trailer was traveling in the left lane of I-24 behind one of the TDOT vehicles. The driver of the 18-wheeler, 24 year-old Jonathan White from Swainsboro, Ga. merged into the right lane attempting to pass the TDOT vehicle which was in the left lane. It was at this time the tractor-trailer crashed into the rear of one of the salt trucks driven by 53 year-old Steven Gowen of Manchester, TN which was in the right lane of I-24. The TDOT truck was struck so hard by the 18-wheeler that it was knocked over onto its side.
Gowen, White and a passenger in the tractor-trailer were taken by Coffee County EMS with unknown injuries to Medical Center of Manchester.