Maine student falls out of vehicle, dies in Great Smoky park

Published 9:00 am Friday, March 6, 2020

GATLINBURG (AP) — A Tennessee college student was killed when she fell out of a window of a moving vehicle in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, officials said.

A news release from the National Park Service says Maiah Reilich-Godino, 18, of Eddington, Maine, was a passenger in a 2011 Jeep Patriot on Tuesday night. The news release said Reilich-Godino fell from the vehicle when the roof rack she was pulling up on disconnected from the roof.

The news release said Reilich-Godino died as a result of her injuries. Neither the driver nor the other passenger in the car was hurt, officials said.

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The accident occurred around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday on the Foothills Parkway near mile marker 13 on the Tennessee side of the park, which straddles the North Carolina border.

Reliche-Godino was a student at Maryville College in Maryville, Tenn.