Lisa Marchesoni
Posted: Friday, February 5, 2010 7:37 pm

Emergency workers pull out a driver and her car Friday from Stones River off Barfield Road.

Without regard for their own safety, several motorists jumped into Stones River, flipped over a car on its top and tried to rescue a teen seat-belted inside the vehicle Friday on Barfield Road.

They couldn’t free the driver but secured the car so it wouldn’t float downstream until the Emergency Medical Services Special Operations Response Team, the county Dive Team and Rutherford Rescue Squad freed her.

Paramedics rushed Alisha Nance, 17, a Riverdale High School student to Middle Tennessee Medical Center where she was later transferred to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Troopers have not yet released her name.

Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Chris Dye said the driver ran off the wet Barfield Road, lost traction, overcorrected and slid into the river.

State Farm Insurance Agent Celeste Middleton, who jumped into the water, described the actions of the rescuers as a “human spirit” coming together.

Middleton saw a woman talking on the telephone near the river and stopped along with other drivers.

“We flipped it because she was upside down,” Middleton said. “We held onto the car until the police got here so it wouldn’t be swept down the river.”

Witness Cheryl Frost described Middleton as “brave to get in the water.”

Joining Middleton were Amy Sayles, David Tickle, Alex Farsian and Justin Price.

“They really risked themselves,” Frost said. “They were heroic. They did risk their lives.”

Tickle said they bolted down the hill and turned it over. The rescuers were unable to break the windows to reach the driver.

Middleton said Tickle was clutching the car until Farsian, Price and neighbor Whitney Thompson got ropes to try to secure the car from floating down the river.

Farsian said he backed up his truck and tied the rope to the car to hold it.

Price said the rescuers lifted up the car and turned it over. Because of the current, they could not free her.

Divers and squad volunteers quickly extricated the driver and a waiting ambulance took her to Middle Tennessee Medical Center.

Neighbor Debbie Thompson said her daughter Whitney, 21, kept running to their house to get whatever items she could to secure the car. The family’s used to multiple crashes in that stretch of Barfield Road. Thompson keeps a flashlight and phone near the front door. When they heard the crash, they run out the front door. They’ve pulled many people out of the ditch.

“We’ve never had a fatality” in the 21 years they’ve lived in the house, she said, adding, “We want a guardrail.”

Frost agreed.

“This is a road that needs a guardrail,” Frost said. “They need to get some guardrails.”