Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 18, 1993 TAG: 9306180204
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Police Lt. Ramey Bower said witnesses and physical evidence at the scene of the May 16 accident led to the estimates of Brooks' speed.
Brooks, a habitual offender with at least six suspensions of his driver's license, had a blood-alcohol content of 0.26 percent at the time of the crash. That put him at more than 2 1/2 times the legal limit for intoxication.
Brooks died in the crash along with his passenger, Gregory S. Kinzie, and Geoff Pelton, the driver of another car. Ray Dyke Jr., a passenger in Pelton's car, has been paralyzed since the crash.
Dyke's family is planning a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the estates of Brooks and Kinzie, the owner of the car whose license was also suspended due to a drunken-driving conviction.
As a habitual offender, Brooks had been banned from Virginia's highways for 10 years.
"It's just appalling that when you look at his blood-alcohol concentration, that he would be out there endangering lives," said George Pelton, Geoff Pelton's father. "The only question was who he was going to kill."
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB