Three people, including an off-duty Knoxville, TN police officer, were taken to UT Medical Center after an accident on Alcoa Highway that blocked both southbound lanes for close to 30 minutes one evening.

At 10:37 p.m., a woman was driving southbound on Alcoa Highway near the naval operations center when she apparently missed a turn, according to Knoxville Police Sgt. Jason Hill.

She stopped near the naval operations center on the right side of the highway, then started backing up in the shoulder of the road, Hill said. The woman then turned left across the southbound lanes. Officers believe she was trying to go northbound again.

However, as the woman turned, the off-duty KPD officer and his girlfriend were traveling south in a pickup truck and hit the woman's car from the side in a "t-bone" style collison.

Both vehicles were severely damaged in the crash. The woman who attempted to turn left and the officer's girlfriend were pinned in their vehicles.

It took rescuers 45 minutes to free both of them. The officer was not pinned and received what appeared to be minor injuries.

Ambulances transported all three patients to UT Medical Center. Their names and conditions were not released, but Sgt. Hill said the two women received "severe injuries."

A reconstruction team was sent to the scene to investigate and gather evidence in the roadway.

Source: WBIR-TV http:// www.wbir.com

I think it should go without saying that you should never back up on a highway just because you missed your exit. Most highways are designed with ample safe exits to allow traffic to flow smoothly, and allow motorists, if need be, to reenter the highway and go back in the other direction. There are traffic lights at intersections or even U-Turn lanes that are put in place to prevent senseless accidents like this one.

Maybe before panicking and taking drastic measures to change directions on a highway, you should calm down, exercise patience, and look for the next turnaround, saving yourself and others from severe injury or death.

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