YOUTHS IN CONCERT RUSH INVOLVED IN FATAL CRASH

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 26, 1993                   TAG: 9301260071
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLOYD                                LENGTH: Medium
YOUTHS IN CONCERT RUSH INVOLVED IN FATAL CRASH
Driver inexperience and forgotten concert tickets contributed to a crash that killed a Floyd County youth Friday.
Kenny Joel Dalton, 16, traveling with two friends to see Alabama perform at the Roanoke Civic Center, died when the car he was riding in ran off U.S. 211 near Check.
Dalton and his friends left for the concert without their tickets and were doubling back to retrieve them when the accident occurred.
The driver, 16-year-old Charles Arthur Blackwell, and his 13-year-old brother, who was riding in the back seat, walked away from the wreck.
Dalton was fatally injured when a locust tree smashed into the passenger side of the 1986 Buick after the vehicle careened off the road.
Trooper R.W. Abshire, who is investigating the accident, declined to say if the car was speeding when it ran off two-lane U.S. 211 in a curve.
He did say that the car traveled a "considerable distance" as it swerved back across the highway, struck a guardrail, became airborne and hit the tree.
No alcohol was involved and Abshire said the driver and Dalton were wearing seat belts, as the law requires.
Although the road was damp, Abshire said the surface was not a factor.
Blackwell had only been driving on a full license for seven months, and "inexperience played a big part," said Abshire.
When the youths realized they had forgotten their concert tickets, they called Blackwell's mother and arranged for her to bring the tickets and meet them where U.S. 221 crosses the Little River.
The crash occurred about 7 p.m., about an hour before the concert was scheduled to begin.
Abshire said charges are pending.
Dalton and Blackwell were friends and Floyd County High School juniors. Dalton was a member of the school's baseball team, and a "well-liked, popular student," said Principal Norman Blanchard.
A crowd of fellow students attended Dalton's funeral Sunday, and a moment of silence was observed in his memory at school on Monday morning.
Counselors also were made available. "Most of the students have been very subdued today," Blanchard said.
A committee has been formed among members of Dalton's class to plan a memorial project, he said.
Keywords:
FATALITY

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB