Corbin man killed during Tuesday evening crash

A two-vehicle head-on crash claimed the life of a Corbin man Tuesday evening.

Whitley County Coroner Andy Croley identified the deceased as Speed M. Tye, 53, who died from multiple injuries sustained in a motor vehicle collision.

The accident happened about 9 p.m. on US25W near the Corbin Speedway and Siler Implement.

The initial investigation indicates that at 1991 Cadillac passenger car, which was operated by Kristopher P. Watts, 20, of Corbin, collided with Tye’s 2020 Kia passenger car, according to a Kentucky State Police release.

Whitley County EMS transported Watts to Baptist Health Corbin. His passengers, Jace E. Maiden, 19, of Lily, and Hunter Simpson, 18, of London, were both transported by air medical helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center with nonlife threatening injuries, the release noted.

A toxicology test was performed on both operators involved in the collision. Blood toxicology tests on drivers is a standard procedure in the fatal crashes.

Tye was the only person in the Kia.

Tye wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, but Croley said he didn’t know the seatbelt status of any of the people inside the Cadillac.

Both vehicles were totaled in the crash.

“It was a very bad wreck,” Croley noted.

Kentucky State Police Detective Dackery Larkey is conducting the investigation into the crash, and was assisted at the scene by the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department, members of the Oak Grove and Woodbine volunteer fire departments, Whitley County EMS, PH-I Air Medical, Air Evac Life Team, and the Whitley County Coroner’s Office.