Woman Dies in ‘Freak Accident’ After Getting Pinned Between 2 Cars in Parking Lot at Tenn. Shopping Mall

Mar. 15, 2025

A photo of the Honda CRV that crashed into several cars.Photo:Murfreesboro TN Police Department

Murfreesboro TN Police Department

A woman in Tennessee died after sustaining injuries in what police are describing as a “freak accident” after she got pinned between two cars in a parking lot.

The Murfreesboro Police Department said in aFacebook postthat the woman — identified as 61-year-old Cathy Pendergrass of Warrenton, Va. — had been helping a man in a wheelchair enter a vehicle when the incident happened.

Police said the incident took place on Monday, Dec. 23 at around 3 p.m. local time in the parking lot of LongHorn Steakhouse at The Avenue Mall, and involved a Honda CRV which had been “modified for use as a mail carrier vehicle” and had an “accelerator and brake pedal installed on the passenger side.”

A photo of the area where the accident happened.Murfreesboro TN Police Department

Police noted that the man “recently suffered a stroke and has no feeling on his left side,” and as he was getting into the SUV, his foot “accidentally pressed the accelerator pedal.”

“[This caused] the vehicle to reverse and spin out of control,” police said. “The SUV struck a parked vehicle, pinning the woman [Pendergrass] who was standing outside between the two vehicles.”

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Emergency responders were called to the scene, and Pendergrass was taken to Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital in critical condition. She was later transferred to Vanderbilt Medical Center, where police saidshe diedon Saturday, Dec. 28.

The man in the wheelchair and the woman in the driver’s seat “were not hurt,” police said.

Police said the parking lot section where the incident occurred was “blocked off” after the crash, causing “long delays in the area.”

This prompted authorities to recommend that shoppers use other entrances while emergency crews investigated the scene.

source: people.com