Good Samaritan loses life trying to help overturned SUV

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — A good Samaritan who stopped on the interstate to help an SUV that had overturned on black ice was killed along with her son when a tractor-trailer slammed into them.

Kristi Clark, 34, of Franklin was always willing to help, said her father, Brad Lewis of Centerville, Tenn. And she was inseparable from her 10-year-old son, Carter.

"If she saw an accident, she's not going to run from it," Lewis said. "That's Kristi."

When Clark saw the wreck at about 9 p.m. Monday, she stopped and brought her son with her. As the two approached the sport-utility vehicle, the tractor-trailer struck them.

It was not known immediately whether the rig's driver, who was not identified, will be charged.

The 10-year-old died at the scene; his mother died a short time later at Williamson Medical Center. The pair were among at least six fatalities resulting from this most recent winter storm, including at least three in Tennessee.

Two of the five people in the SUV were taken to the hospital with critical injuries and remain in serious condition, according to Franklin police.

"Kristi and her son, Carter, are heroes," Franklin Police Chief Deborah Faulkner said in a statement.

Lewis said the crash on Interstate 65 about 20 miles south of Nashville occurred not far from his daughter's home and that she had taken Carter and his younger sister, Adelyn, sledding earlier in the day. He wasn't sure what had brought them back out again.

Clark was one kid in a big, tight-knit family, Lewis said. Many of her siblings and step-siblings live in the area.

Clark was "the one that her sisters and brothers looked up to," said Bonnie Lewis, Brad Lewis' wife. "She was the backbone of them."

Contributing: Jordan Buie, The Tennessean; The Associated Press