COCKE COUNTY, TN. (THECOUNT) — Josey Gale, of Vassar, Michigan, Starr Majors, of Otter Lake, Michigan and Cole Hafer, of Vassar, Michigan, have been identified as the victims in the triple-fatal vehicle crash in Cocke County, Tennessee Monday night.
Gale and Hafer, both 28, and 26-year-old Majors, were all killed in a Monday night Interstate 40 two-vehicle crash near Hartford, Tennessee.
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According to reports, Gale was operating a Ford Focus on I-40 near Newport, when for unknown reason, the vehicle crossed centerlines and into opposing lanes around 11:30 Monday. The vehicle then came into head-on contact with a Toyota Tundra, operated by 18-year-old Isaiah Rathbone, of Penrose, North Carolina.
Rathbone and his passenger, Michael Smithers, 21, suffered unknown injuries in the crash.
The three women in the Ford were pronounced dead of blunt force trauma injuries.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
TheCount.com previously identified one of the victims as “Kay-Cie Hafer,” although that was the victim’s legal name, it has since come to our attention she was actually a transgender individual who went by the name “Cole Hafer.”
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Geo quick facts: Cocke County is a county on the eastern border of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, the population was 35,662. Its county seat is Newport. Cocke County comprises the Newport, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the Knoxville-Morristown-Sevierville, Tennessee Combined Statistical Area – Wikipedia.