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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 10, 1993                   TAG: 9306100038
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CRASH THAT KILLED CHILD PROBED

Investigators said John Walton Stover, who has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the traffic death of a 9-year-old boy, was playing a game of "high-speed leapfrog" with another driver at the time of last week's crash on Peters Creek Road.

Dustin Washburn, a third-grader at Burlington Elementary School, was killed after his mother's car was struck in the rear by Stover's car.

Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart said Wednesday he is reviewing evidence in the case to determine whether other people should be charged.

Police declined to release the name of the second driver.

Stover told investigators he had been drinking beer at Valleypointe After Hours, a beach party sponsored by Easter Seal of Virginia Inc.

He was not charged with driving under the influence after registering just under the .10 blood-alcohol content needed to prove legal intoxication.

Roanoke County investigators have determined that Stover and another driver were darting in and out of traffic at the time Stover's car hit the Washburn vehicle.

Dustin Washburn died several hours after the accident as a result Stover was not charged with driving under the influence after registering just under the .10 blood-alcohol content needed to prove legal intoxication. of massive head injuries.

Witnesses at the time of the accident told police that two cars had been racing down Peters Creek Road before the crash.

by CNB