By Gary Nelson / gnelson@crossville-chronicle.com
Anna Hart was a regular customer at the Genesis Quick Stop Shell gas station.
"She usually came in at least once a week or more and would buy gas and sometimes candy," said Lisa Wyatt, manager of the gas station.
Just before 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, Hart, 71, of Crossville was killed in what Wyatt and emergency response officials called a "freak, tragic accident."
"It's something I will never forget as long as I live," Wyatt said.
Hart stopped at the gas station, went in and paid for her gas and returned to her vehicle.
According to the Crossville Police report, surveillance video at the gas station showed Hart approach her vehicle and stand in the door.
"She reaches in and the vehicle moves backwards. The vehicle then moves forward and Ms. Hart becomes trapped in the door. The door was driven into the pump's guardrail..." the report states.
The report further states Hart loses her footing and falls and when the door hits the pump's guardrail the door crushes crushes Hart to the bottom of the chassis in between the driver's door and the cab of her vehicle.
A few minutes later a customer came into the store and alerted Wyatt and another clerk working at the station that a woman was hanging from her vehicle.
Wyatt said she called 911 for help. The vehicle was still running and there wasn't anything she could do because the woman was pinned in the door so tightly.
"I touched her and didn't get a response and then I checked to see if she was breathing and she wasn't," Wyatt said.
Crossville Police Assistant Chief Darrell Sherrill said some of Hart's family members happened to be passing by the gas station and discovered it was Hart.
Wednesday morning Wyatt was still shaken by the incident.
"I never would have thought anything like this would happen here. We're all still in shock," she said.
Although the accident occurred just before 10 a.m., Wyatt stayed at the station until almost 4 p.m. and finished her shift.
"I wanted to try and keep my mind off it. I know if I went home all I would have done is sit there and think about it all day and night," Wyatt said.
Emergency responders and police officials pronounced Hart dead on the scene. It took emergency workers nearly thirty minutes to remove the woman's body from in between the vehicle's door and door jam. In order to do so the woman's vehicle had to be pulled sideways away from the concrete barrier and pole.
The gas station was roped off and secured by emergency responders and was closed during the incident.
Personnel from the Crossville Fire Department, Cumberland County Sheriff's Department and Crossville Police Department responded to the scene.
