TN Firefighters, EMS Responders Thought Victim was Dead

STANLEY VALLEY - For about an hour and a half after rescuers responded to a single-vehicle accident Sunday morning on Caney Valley Road in Hawkins County, they thought they were dealing with a double fatality - until a volunteer firefighter noticed that one of the accident victims was moving underneath a sheet.

Stanley Valley Volunteer Fire Department Lt. Charles Thacker said Monday he hadn't heard the initial call to the accident scene about 5:30 a.m. Sunday. When he did get to the scene a little later, he learned that a pickup carrying two passengers had run off the roadway and struck several trees on an embankment and that both occupants were dead.

According to a report filed by Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Jim Lee, a 1984 Chevrolet pickup was eastbound on Caney Valley Road when it came to a curve and left the roadway. Lee could not determine who the driver was, but he said in the report that neither occupant was wearing a seat belt.

Michael Allen Rollins, 21, of Surgoinsville, was killed. And for about an hour and a half, rescuers thought Hank Winegar, 18, of Surgoinsville was deceased as well.

"The fire department was the first on the scene, and they didn't feel a pulse. And when Church Hill EMS got there, they didn't feel a pulse," Thacker said. "And when it got to be daylight around 7:20 (a.m.) I walked over there and saw that he was breathing and went and told them, and that's when they rushed him to the hospital. I'm glad I did (go look), because I don't know how much longer he could have lasted in that cold.

"He was laying partially through the windshield on the hood of the truck with a sheet over him, and I could see him moving beneath the sheet, and I ran and told them he was still alive."

According to Hawkins County Central Dispatch records, Winegar was on his way to Holston Valley Medical Center by 7:17 a.m., more than an hour and a half after rescuers were initially dispatched to the accident. As of Monday at 10 p.m., Winegar was listed in critical condition at HVMC.

Hawkins County coroner Chris Christian said Monday he was initially dispatched to a double fatality. Christian said he did not check for signs of life from either victim when he got to the scene.

Church Hill Emergency Medical Service paramedic Tony Armstrong, who responded to the scene, would not comment on Winegar initially being thought dead except to say he didn't know all the details and, "I think it's an issue we probably need to hold on to."

"I don't think it was any fault of anyone who was working the wreck," Thacker said. "The state trooper (Jim Lee) said that was a common thing, and the way he (Winegar) was laying it could have had his circulation cut off where they were checking for a pulse."

Thacker added that the accident appeared to him to be related to excessive speed.

"They went down over an embankment, and it looked to me like the top of the truck was actually hitting the tree, it was leaned over so much," Thacker said. "The truck looked like it had been run over by a semi. The bed was completely gone, and the top of the cab was mashed almost to the seat."