MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) — Murfreesboro police have asked area drivers to avoid one entrance to a shopping mall while they respond to an injury crash involving a pedestrian.
The Murfreesboro Police Department said the crash happened in the parking lot of a steakhouse at The Avenue Mall on Medical Center Parkway just before 3 p.m. on Monday. That entrance to the mall was blocked off as authorities investigated the crash.
Shortly after 7 p.m., the Murfreesboro Police Department posted an update to social media saying that a "freak accident" left a woman critically injured.
"The incident is currently under investigation by the MPD Fatal Accident Crash Team," the post added. "The woman is being treated for injuries."
Murfreesboro police also told News 2 the crash involved a Honda CRV that had been "modified for use as a mail carrier vehicle with an accelerator and a brake pedal installed on the passenger side."
A preliminary investigation revealed that a woman in the driver's seat of the CRV had reversed out of a parking spot to let a man in a wheelchair enter the vehicle. That man was assisted into the SUV by another woman.
Police said as the man was getting into the SUV, his foot pressed the accelerator pedal, which caused the vehicle to reverse and spin out of control. The Honda CRV then struck a parked vehicle and pinned the woman who was standing between the two vehicles.
Murfreesboro Fire Rescue Department personnel and Rutherford County Emergency Medical Services began medical care at the scene. The woman was transported to St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital, but was later taken to Vanderbilt University Medial Center where police said "she is in critical condition."
No one else was injured as a result of this crash, which remains under investigation by the Murfreesboro Police Department's Fatal Accident Crash Team (FACT).