UPDATED: RUTHERFORD COUNTY, TN – The 87-year-old man who was struck and killed by a vehicle this past week on Highway 231 South in Christiana was laid to rest on Monday. Jerry Wayne Smotherman, 86, reportedly saw that a motorist had been involved in an accident and stopped to assist those on the scene of the busy state highway.
The first accident — along with the second that tragically followed — occurred within feet of one another on Highway 231 South in Christiana, just outside the Murfreesboro city limits. Firefighters, State Troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP), and deputies from the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office all responded immediately after the first call was made to dispatchers. Upon arrival, authorities quickly shut down the four-lane divided highway between Richmond’s Retreat and Walnut Grove Road.
Smotherman was struck and killed after attempting to check on those involved in the first accident. He was hit by an oncoming vehicle driven by a 37-year-old man headed toward Shelbyville…