UTC Student Killed in Drunk Driving Accident

According to Nashville Metro Police, a man from Centerville was driving drunk when he collided with another car head-on, which killed the other driver.  Ian McClellan was driving the wrong way on Interstate 40 heading westbound when he hit Katie Kerr’s car near the Davidson-Cheatham county line on the morning of Wednesday, May 6, 2009.

Kerr, a 23-year-old UTC student, was wearing her seatbelt at the time of the crash.  She died at the scene of the accident.

Responding officers said that McClellan, a 29-year-old man, smelled of alcohol and they discovered broken bottles in his 1996 Jeep Cherokee.

McClellan later admitted that he had started drinking at 3:00 PM Tuesday in Spring Hill and he was eventually charged with vehicular homicide by intoxication, according to police.

Kerr was heading home from her Bellevue job at a restaurant when the accident took place.  She graduated in 2004 from Dickson County High School and was a student at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga where she was majoring in English with a focus in International Studies.  Kerr was supposed to graduate from UTC this summer.

Her brother Scott Kerr said that, “we’re all just shocked.  I don’t even know what to think of it right now.”

Kerr was described as smart and someone who was always smiling and laughing.

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