Auto worker killed in bus accident

A workplace accident near Singleton Station Road took the life of a man Thursday evening, April 9. Kevin Cooper, 30, was fatally injured while working on a bus.

Cooper was the son of Alcoa Vice Mayor Tracey Cooper, who contacted The Daily Times Friday morning. He was employed as a shop foreman for Rocky Top Tours, she said, and would have been 31 in two weeks.

The Daily Times was unable to reach a representative of Rocky Top Tours by press time Friday. Blount County Fire Protection District Chief Doug McClanahan said firefighters initially responded to a report of an accident with injury at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. The report, he said, was of someone trapped under a bus at an address on Continental Drive. Dispatchers called his team off a few minutes later, saying the individual had been freed.

“We never heard exactly what happened,” said McClanahan.

Cooper said her son was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center and later to the Knox County Regional Forensics Center for an autopsy. Marian O’Briant, public information officer for the Blount County Sheriff’s Office, said deputies are investigating the death. Chris Cannon, a representative of the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said staff had not received a report of the death Friday afternoon.

“An investigator from TOSHA’s Knoxville office is currently researching details about the workplace accident,” he said in part. Cooper said her son’s death would not affect her official duties.