Man dies, girl saved after vehicle went into the Tennessee River

MARION COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF) – Store Manager Tiffany Kerr was inside Anchor Inn Bait and Tackle Monday afternoon when she peered out the window.

“I seen a car in the water. The backside was up and then I was sitting there wondering like, is that really a car, and I had to do a double take. Well, it was a car in fact,” Kerr said.

It was a frightful scene just beyond the banks of the Tennessee River.

“I was shocked and then I seen that there was a little girl and my heart just like, it stopped,” Kerr said.

She said about the same time people jumped in to rescue the little girl, the vehicle went straight down into the water.

The girl got out.

“There was actually a lady that called up to the store and asked the little, asked us to fix her some fries and get her a Sprite. So we did, and they took her on to the hospital,” Kerr said.

Authorities pulled a Lincoln MKX out of the river.

Marion County Sheriff Bo Burnett said it was about 20 to 30 feet from the shore.

The vehicle was recovered in a multi-agency effort, with the help of divers.

“I think they had to go down 10 to 12 foot,” Sheriff Burnett said.

The Sheriff confirmed the little girl was rescued by passerby, while a man in the vehicle did not survive.

“We think we know what happened, but we, we’ve got a, we’ll have to wait for autopsy which y’all heard before, you know got to find out cause of death or whatever, but it’s still going to be an active investigation until we hear something from the, about the autopsy,” he said.

As for Kerr, she said the incident is heartbreaking and says she praying for the little girl and her family.