ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 18, 1995 TAG: 9512180107
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN STAFF WRITER
A 21-year-old New York man, arrested Tuesday in Wythe County following a high-speed chase that ended in a collision with a tractor-trailer, now faces voluntary manslaughter charges, according to state police.
The new charge was brought against Dale Robert Provost of Saranac after his passenger, Jamie Marie Clay, 17, of Cadyville, N.Y., died Sunday at University of Virginia Hospital from injuries she sustained in the crash.
Sgt. D.M. Honaker said a trooper tried to stop a driver on southbound Interstate 77 Tuesday morning, but the suspect sped away. Provost was wanted in New York on probation violations, Honaker said.
The driver tried to pass vehicles by driving in the median, but he lost control and ended up in the northbound lane of I-77, where he hit the tractor-trailer head on, police said.
The truck driver was treated at Wythe Community Hospital and later released. Clay, the teen-age passenger in the car, received massive head injuries and was flown from Wythe Community to Charlottesville.
The driver, who escaped serious injury, crawled away from the crash and fled the scene, Honaker said. About an hour later, police found Provost with a stolen firearm, hiding under a bed in an abandoned house.
Provost also was charged with hit and run, reckless driving, driving without an operator's license, attempting to elude police, possessing a stolen firearm and possessing a stolen vehicle.
He is being held in Wythe County Jail without bond, pending a trial scheduled Feb. 16.
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB