Tesla hits studio

Children moved moments before car struck downtown dance building

April 22, 2026 by G. Chambers Williams III

A woman test-driving a 2024 Tesla electric car crashed the vehicle into the side of the Dream Dance Studio on Commerce Street in downtown Clinton last Wednesday afternoon, knocking a large hole in the building – but miraculously not injuring anyone inside.

The crash, which the woman told bystanders occurred because she “accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake” pedal when pulling out of the Commerce Street parking lot, wrecked the interior of one of three large dance classrooms inside the building.

Only the driver and two male passengers in the car were injured, but not seriously, witnesses and police said. They were all from Knoxville.

Dream Dance Studio owner Olivia Bartley-Hill said that some children had been participating in a dance class in the affected room just minutes earlier, but had been moved to another classroom before the car crashed through.

There were broken bricks and other debris littering the floor all across the affected area after the crash, which Clinton City Manager Roger Houck said could have seriously injured or even killed anyone inside the room when the car hit.

The car’s front end was still sticking into the building when police arrived at 4:01 p.m. The car appeared to be a total loss.

Witnesses said the owner of the car was in the back seat, and the driver’s husband was in the right front seat when the accident occurred.

The side of the building was boarded up after a tow truck pulled the car out of the hole, and it remained that way Monday.

Bartley-Hill said the building owner’s insurance company told the owner not to disturb the scene until adjusters with the woman’s auto-insurance company had come to assess the damage, which she said has still not occurred as of early Monday afternoon.

Katherine Birkbeck, executive director of Historic Downtown Clinton, told The Courier News that she witnessed the accident – and was nearly a part of it – as she was parked along Commerce Street in front of the dance studio waiting for her daughter to come out.

“The car came right in front of my car and into the building, just missing the front of my car,” Birkbeck said.

“I helped the driver get out of the car. She said she was test driving the Tesla, and she just lost control of the car. She said she was pressing on the gas instead of the brakes.

“It was terrifying, but it was a miracle none of the kids were inside there,” Birkbeck said. “I immediately got out to try to help her. When I got to her, she was very panicked. She kept saying, ‘Get me out of the car.’ At first, I couldn’t figure out how to open the Tesla’s door.

“She was very concerned about whether there was anyone in the building. One of them owned the car.”

The Clinton Police Department declined to identify the driver or owner of the car, redacting that information from the copy of the accident report provided to The Courier News. The report did say that there was “no insurance” on the Tesla.

Ambulances transported the occupants of the vehicle to two different hospitals, but there were no serious injuries.