Displaying items by tag: smokies death
Falling tree kills child in Great Smokies
ELKMONT — A 9-year-old girl died early Wednesday after a tree fell on a tent she was occupying in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The unidentified child was among a group of people camping in Elkmont Campground when the red maple, 2 feet in diameter, fell shortly after midnight and crushed the girl in her tent, according to the National Park Service.
The girl and her family had traveled to the national park from Georgia. Her father and two siblings weren’t injured, according to the park service.
Elkmont Campground remains open, but the family’s campsite and an adjacent campsite were temporarily closed.
19-year-old woman killed after car veers into rock face on Smokies Spur
A car crash into rocks on the Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Spur killed a young woman and injured two others who were flown to UT hospital via medical helicopter.
Elizabeth Marie Parker, 19, of Centerville, Ohio, died when the sedan in which she was riding collided with a rock hillside on the right side of the road late Monday night, according to a release from the National Park Service.
Vehicle accidents are typically the No. 1 cause of fatalities each year in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which attracts upwards of 12 million visitors annually.