Four cheerleaders die in Tenn. car crash

HUNTSVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Five people, including four Tennessee high school cheerleaders, were killed in a fiery head-on collision on a foggy, slippery highway, officials said.

The cheerleaders' SUV lost control on a curve along U.S. Highway 27 in Scott County, Tenn., colliding with an oncoming car Friday night. The collision caused the girls' vehicle to veer off the road and overturn into a ditch, The Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel reported.

Three of the cheerleaders died at the scene. They were identified as Aleasha Hill, 17, of Pioneer, Tenn.; Jamie Hill, her 15-year-old sister; and Nikki Hughett, 16, of Huntsville, Tenn. A fourth, Ashley Mason, a 15-year-old sophomore from Huntsville, died later at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.

Authorities said the girls were heading to their homes after cheering at a Scott County High School football game and attending a birthday party, with Hughett at the wheel.

A passenger in the oncoming car, Jeweline Ledbetter King, 49, of Grimsley, Tenn., also died at the scene, while her 22-year-old granddaughter, who survived the crash, lost an unborn child.