A 22-year-old driver is facing two counts of vehicular homicide after troopers say he drove the wrong way on Interstate 40 in Knox County, triggering a three-car crash that killed a Tennessee couple. Paul Fisher was allegedly driving westbound in the eastbound lanes near Sutherland Avenue when his car slammed head-on into an oncoming SUV, setting off a chain-reaction collision that also involved a third vehicle.
According to WVLT, the crash happened Sunday when Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers responded to a wreck involving three cars in Knox County. Preliminary reports cited by the station say Fisher was driving a 2012 Toyota Corolla westbound in the eastbound lanes of I-40 when he collided head-on with an oncoming 2026 Chevrolet Equinox near Sutherland Avenue.
The force of the impact sent the Equinox off the right side of the interstate and down an embankment, where it struck a utility pole, the station reports. The Equinox's driver, 46-year-old Brian Elmore, and his passenger, 43-year-old Brandi Elmore, both of Tennessee, were killed in the crash.
Second Vehicle Caught in the Chain Reaction
After striking the Equinox, Fisher's car hit a second eastbound vehicle head-on: a 2024 Honda Civic traveling directly behind the SUV. The Civic's driver was not injured, according to the reports relayed by the station, while Fisher himself suffered injuries in the collision.
Troopers told the outlet that all drivers and passengers involved in the crash were wearing seatbelts. Beyond the two counts of vehicular homicide attributed to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, additional details about Fisher's charges were not known at the time of the station's report.
Another Deadly Wrong-Way Crash on the Same Interstate
The Knox County collision adds to a string of wrong-way crashes reported along I-40 in Tennessee this year. In Smith County, WKRN reported that two people were killed in a head-on crash on the same interstate on a Sunday night, after 21-year-old Chase Pulley was found to be driving a 2015 Honda CR-V westbound in the eastbound lanes when it crashed into a 2024 Nissan Sentra. Both Pulley and the Sentra's driver, 20-year-old Breanna Sullivan, died in that crash, and the roadway remained closed through the following morning before reopening, the station reported.
Wrong-way crashes remain a persistent and deadly problem on the nation's highways. The National Transportation Safety Board notes that on average, 360 lives are lost each year in about 260 fatal wrong-way collisions nationwide, and that roughly 60 percent of such crashes involve alcohol, according to an NTSB fact sheet.
Tennessee's own transportation planners have flagged the issue as well. The state's Strategic Highway Safety Plan tracks wrong-way driving fatalities and serious injuries as part of its broader push to reduce crash deaths statewide, while the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security maintains county-by-county crash data used to monitor these trends over time.
No further information about Fisher's court proceedings, bond status or legal representation has been made public. Hoodline will update this story as more details become available.
