KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- Three people were killed Monday morning after an ambulance collision in West Knoxville at the intersection of Martinwood and North Peters Road.
A Rural/Metro ambulance collided with a Honda sedan, which then crashed into a Chevy Blazer. The victims in the Honda were six-year-old Marissa Turpin and her mother, 28-year-old Shanda Turpin. They died at the scene.
The victim in the Blazer, 68-year-old Anita Hargis, also died at the scene. Her husband, Richard Hargis, is in serious condition at UT Medical Center.
Eyewitnesses say Turpin's gold Honda pulled out from an automobile sales lot and into the path of the ambulance, which was travelling westbound with lights flashing on Kingston Pike.
The ambulance "T-boned" the car, sending it into the Blazer. The Blazer was travelling eastbound on Kingston Pike.
Tina Ziegenfoss witnessed the collision. "They just hit, and it just started a reaction. The red truck was coming in the opposite direction, and hit the passenger side. And she was just sandwiched in between the ambulance and the red truck."
Eugene Holt says he rushed to help Marissa Turpin and her mother. "This little girl, she was just pinned in the car. I was trying to get her out."
Holt says the girl was unconscious as he tried to get her out. "The door was pinned all around her and she couldn't move." He adds that her mother seemed to drift in and out of consciousness, but never spoke.
Six hours after the collision, Tina Ziegenfoss says it's a mental picture she can never erase. "Just seeing those cars being wrangled, thrown all over the place, I don't want to see that again."
Two Rural/Metro paramedics, Heather Purdue and James McGuire, were released from Fort Sanders Parkwest Medical Center Monday afternoon.
Police say both Purdue and McGuire were wearing their seatbelts. Also, the ambulance airbags deployed. The ambulance was on its way to a call with no patient onboard.
Police investigators say it may take three weeks for a full report on the cause of the collision. Officers were on the scene Monday marking and measuring the area, trying to re-create what happened.
Family members for the Turpins were at the scene Monday, taking pictures and talking to investigators. The family calls the intersection dangerous and says they will seek legal action.
