Vehicle Safety News

A rural East Tennessee community was grieving Saturday for four high school cheerleaders who died in a fiery car crash hours after they had been cheering on their football team. A sport utility vehicle carrying the cheerleaders collided with an oncoming car late Friday night on a wet, foggy highway in Scott County, northwest of Knoxville, authorities said. A passenger in the car also was killed.

"It's more than a shock and we are just horrified," said Cynthia Reynolds, the cheerleading coach at Scott High School. She said the girls went out after the game to celebrate another cheerleader's birthday. "They were really, really close." A passenger in the car, Jeweline Ledbetter King, 49, was also killed. King's 22-year-old daughter-in-law, Miranda King, was sitting in the back seat and lost her unborn child because of injuries from the crash.

Investigators believe the crash was caused in part by the slick and foggy conditions, and a preliminary report indicated none of the girls in the SUV was wearing a seat belt, said Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Investigators believe the SUV hydroplaned on a curve on the two-lane highway, flipped on its side and crossed the center lane, slamming into the oncoming Ford Taurus. The SUV erupted into flames. McPherson said investigators believe passengers were still trapped inside the second vehicle when the SUV caught fire a few feet away. A passing motorist used an all-terrain vehicle to pull the Taurus away from the burning SUV, she said.

Learn more about SUV rollover defects and dangers and your legal rights.