Local Nurse dies in car crash

An off-duty nurse at Stones River Medical Center died Saturday in a head-on traffic crash after she left work, a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper said.

Nurse Kathleen Stuart, 58, of McMinnville died at the scene of the crash about 8:20 p.m. Saturday (Sept. 15) on U.S. Highway 70 (McMinnville Highway) near the Elkins Church of Christ near Billy West Road, said Trooper Rodney Whiles.

Another driver, Harold Weston Herriman, 33, of McFerrin Street in Woodbury, suffered injuries in the crash. He was flown by LifeFlight helicopter to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. He was listed in stable condition Wednesday afternoon.

Herriman was not wearing a seat belt but Stuart wore her seat belt. The air bags deployed on both vehicles, Whiles said.

Stuart’s family will receive friends from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at McMinnville Funeral Home chapel. A memorial service is set at 2 p.m. Interment will follow at Gardens of Memory. Military grave rites will be conducted by the American Legion and VFW.

Whiles said Stuart was driving toward McMinnville in her Kia when Herriman, who was driving a Ford F-150 pickup truck in the opposite direction, crossed the center line, entered her lane of travel and struck Stuart head-on.

Stuart was trapped in the wreckage and died at the scene, the trooper said. An off-duty paramedic treated her until on-duty paramedics arrived. Cannon County Rescue Squad extricated her.

Helping at the scene were Cannon County Sheriff’s Department, Woodbury Fire Department, Cannon County Emergency Medical Services and Woodbury Police Department.

Whiles said THP’s Critical Incident Response Team worked the scene of the crash. Troopers obtained statements from witnesses.

“Right now we’re still investigating the crash,” Whiles said. “It’s a policy of the Tennessee Highway Patrol that every time we have a fatality we take blood from everyone involved.”

Stuart was the third person this year to die in a traffic fatality in Cannon County.