-A man who was at Pigeon Forge’s Rod Run event is dead after he crashed an electric scooter into an open car door Thursday, according to the Pigeon Forge Police Department.
The crash happened near the intersection of Jake Thomas Road, PFPD said, when the passenger of a stopped truck opened the truck’s door. The man, 31-year-old Jeremy Hanes Jr. of Charlestown, Indiana was riding the scooter on the Parkway between the white line and the sidewalk when he hit the door, PFPD said.
Hanes was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where he died Friday afternoon.
The investigation is ongoing, PFPD said.
Police said a man was traveling on a scooter near the Parkway and Jake Thomas Road when a vehicle opened the car door.The death of a guy at the Rod Run car festival on Friday transformed what was meant to be a family holiday into a tragedy.“Every year during the Rod Run, we come here. We visit this place three times a year, for one week each time. “This was my son’s first time going to it with me,” Jeremy Hanes, his father, said.
According to Jeremy Hanes, he and his son were riding scooters Thursday night when they were asked by law enforcement to move from the sidewalk onto the road. Later they got separated.
“It was brought to my attention five minutes after my son left me that night that this happened – that he was in an accident – and I discovered it on my own, I went down the street and I seen the scooter there and I seen his hat laying on the ground,” said Jeremy Hanes.
On Saturday, the Pigeon Forge Police Department released that a man driving a scooter crashed into a car door someone opened at a red light as he was driving between the road and the sidewalk. He died in the hospital the next day.
“He couldn’t wait to come to this Rod Run with me and he was very very happy,” said Jeremy Hanes. “And now it’s over.”
Now, Jeremy Hanes wants answers.
“No one can give me an answer, why has no one reached out to me to let me know anything, why has nobody said anything to me?” He asked. “My son is gone; he’s not coming back.
And he’s looking for justice for his son.
“Somebody is at fault here, and somebody is going to pay for this.”
Hanes said one thing that brings him peace is knowing his son was nearly a year sober when he died.
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