Elderly man rescued after car submerged in Wilson Co. creek

LEBANON, Tenn. (WSMV) – An elderly man is lucky to be alive after driving into a creek Tuesday morning in Wilson County.

An 85-year-old man was driving along Baldy Ford Road about 9:45 a.m. when he tried to cross Fall Creek before his car was swept away.

“When we arrived, we found the vehicle with the driver inside,” Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Tyler Grandstaff said. “He was coming through to pick someone up to get groceries, I believe.”

The man, identified as Jerry L. Scott, approached the part of the road where there is a concrete pad across the creek and tried to drive through it.

“When the water got up under the car, he lost control of it,” Grandstaff said.

Scott and his 2004 Honda Accord was swept down the creek as water filled the car up to the man’s armpits. It got stuck in a shallow area when the car made contact with an underwater obstacle, which gave him time to call 911.

“He could have had hypothermia. He is lucky that he had cell phone service,” Grandstaff said.

The woman Scott was going to pick up to take to the grocery store could hear the man yelling for help from her house.

Troopers took the man to Lebanon while crews got his car out of the creek.

The THP said the situation could have been a lot worse.

“If he didn’t have all his windows rolled up and in a deeper spot, he could have drown,” Grandstaff said.

A water rescue team from Wilson County was able to rescue Scott from the car.

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