A Kentucky couple picked up their daughter and son-in-law from the airport Monday night, but never made it home. All of them died in a head on crash in Knox County, as did the driver of the other vehicle.
Gary and Patricia Caldwell were on their way to a joyous holiday reunion with their children. They’d just picked up their daughter Julia from the airport, as well as her husband Brent Robinson. They were driving back to Harlan County to celebrate Christmas, but didn’t make it. A car driven by 31-year old David Vanderpool of Whitley County, cross the center line of US 25E and collided head on with the Caldwell family. Everyone involved in the crash died.
http://liarcatchers.com/accident_reconstruction.html
LEX 18 has learned Patricia Caldwell was an assistant principal at the James A Cawood Elementary School in Harlan. Gary Caldwell also worked in the education field, most recently as a finance director in Letcher County.
James Clem, principal of the James A. Cawood Elementary School sent LEX 18 this statement:
“Mrs. Caldwell was devoted to her work, her family, and her church. She was a stabilizing influence and contributed greatly to our school and our school system. She will be extremely difficult to replace and impossible to duplicate. I consider her a friend ,and an accomplished, reliable, trustworthy, coworker. She had around 19 years experience as an educator spending the past 5 or 6 years as the Assistant Principal at Hall Elementary School and James A. Cawood Elementary School. The news of the tragic accident seemed unbelievable at first hearing it. One of those reports you immediately reject from sheer reaction as impossible. Her family loss carries a strange feeling that friends, community, and the world has suffered a disheartening loss for me.”
