CHATTANOOGA, Tenn - Sunday, April 4,2010 - 3:00 am -
A motorcycle and a car both
left the on-ramp to Highway 153 North in the sprawling intersection of
Highway 153 and North Access Road at the north end of the Chickamauga Dam.
A Honda Accord was traveling
on the ramp when according to its driver, Samantha Lowe, age 25, a biker on
a Harley Davidson motorcycle tried to pass her car in a curve and went into
the oncoming lane.
The biker, identified by
police as, Zachery Nichols, age 24, apparently realized he was in and
oncoming lane and attempted to swerve back into the correct lane in front of
the Honda. He lost control of the Harley "laid the bike down." Both he and
the bike tumbled several times, skidded off the road and went down an
embankment about 20 feet down. Ms. Lowe swerved to miss the motorcycle. Her
car also left the roadway and overturned.
The occupants of the
overturned car were already out of their vehicle and back on the roadway
when first responders arrived. Nichols was found unconscious, down the
embankment and partially under the Honda. Chattanooga firefighters
extricated him and carried up the embankment to the roadway.
Nichols appeared to have a
heartbeat when Hamilton County EMS medics and firefighters first arrived.
They were performing CPR on him as they sped off to the Erlanger emergency
room. He died later at the hospital.
Nichols was the only person
transported to the emergency room. The were four occupants in the Honda,
none were injured.
