Jim Wyatt

jwyatt@tennessean.com

In an emotional 911 call, a woman at the scene of the fatal accident involving Rob Bironas described a troubling run-in with the former Titans kicker moments before he crashed.

The next morning, the woman and her husband gave police investigators a detailed account of an alleged road rage incident that may shed some light on the events preceding Bironas' death.

Bironas lost control of the SUV he was driving while traveling at a high rate of speed Saturday night on Battery Lane, according to Metro police. The vehicle went off the road and hit several trees before landing upside down in a drainage culvert.

Bironas, who played nine seasons with the Titans, was 36.

A Metro police spokesman on Monday said the investigation into the crash is "ongoing." Also on Monday, The Tennessean learned Bironas' wife reported him missing just before the accident occurred.

An autopsy was conducted Monday, but it could be several weeks before toxicology results are available. Police have said there was no alcohol at the scene.

It's been an emotional 48 hours for those who knew Bironas — the Titans' flag was at half-staff on Monday at the team's facility, and later that day Metro police released multiple 911 calls regarding the accident.

In one of the calls, received at 11:03 p.m. Saturday, a woman is describing the accident scene to a 911 operator when she hands her phone to another woman at the scene. The second woman tells the 911 operator that the white SUV tried to run her off the road.

"He is dangerous, he is drunk or something. He tried to start a fight with us,'' the woman said. "My husband ran down there to see what is going on. I just want to tell the police there is something wrong with him. He is dangerous, he is drunk or he is on drugs. There is something wrong with him. He gave us a mean look. We don't even know him, and he tried to run us off the road."

The woman reiterated that she and her husband did not know the man driving the white SUV.

"We let him go on past us because he was trying to run me off the road and we don't know who he was," she said.

Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said the witnesses were called back to the scene on Sunday.

The couple told police they were traveling southbound in the right lane on Franklin Pike between Woodmont and Battery Lane when an SUV in the left lane, driven by Bironas, attempted to merge into their lane.

"They said the driver swerved back, gave them a dirty look and got behind them and was behind them at the intersection on Franklin and Battery,'' Aaron said. "At the stoplight of Franklin and Battery, they said the white SUV was revving its engine behind them."

The couple then turned right on Battery Lane and partially pulled over to let the SUV go by them. According to Aaron, the SUV driver stared at them, and the woman's husband, a passenger in the vehicle, got out of the car.

"Then the white SUV accelerated away at a high rate of speed,'' Aaron said. "They paused a few moments, continued traveling on Battery Lane and came upon the crash."

The accident occurred not far from the home of the popular kicker.

Bironas married Rachel Bradshaw, the daughter of Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw, in June.

On Saturday evening, Rachel Bradshaw called police to report that her husband was missing.

In her statement to police, Bradshaw said she was at home with Bironas and a friend Saturday evening watching a movie when Bironas told her "goodnight" around 10:30 p.m. She assumed he was going to bed.

She told police she went to check on Bironas, but he was not in the house. After phoning him several times without an answer, she called relatives, who had not been in contact with him. So she called police.

Bradshaw told police there was no argument before Bironas left the residence. She said it was "highly unusual behavior for him to leave without telling her." She told police he was not intoxicated, but that he drank a beer earlier in the evening.

As of Monday evening, the Titans hadn't made any kind of announcement as to whether they planned to honor Bironas with a helmet sticker or patch.

Bironas, who played for the Titans from 2005-13 before being released in March, finished as the Titans' second-leading scorer with 1,032 points, and he set a franchise record scoring triple digits in seven straight seasons. Bironas made a franchise-record 11 game-winning field goals during his career, including a 60-yarder against the Colts in 2006 that remains the longest field goal in Oilers or Titans history.

"(Rob's death) came as a real shock,'' former Titans coach Jeff Fisher, now with the Rams, said on Monday. "Just a very sad, sad deal. Rob was … a great teammate. He was fun to be around. People don't realize everything that he did off the field in the community. He was really involved with the charity and the music industries and such. So I wanted to make sure that not only his family but the Bradshaw family knew we were thinking about him."

Reach Jim Wyatt at 259-8015 or on Twitter @jwyattsports