ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 1, 1996 TAG: 9610010089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: GALA
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
A 35-year-old Alleghany County man was killed and three others were injured Monday night when a car being chased by police slammed into another car at a high rate of speed.
Timothy Mays was driving the car hit by the fugitive's vehicle.
The accident, which also involved a third car, happened shortly before 7 p.m. on U.S. 220 in northern Botetourt County.
The chase began when a state trooper running radar on Interstate 64 in Alleghany County clocked a car going 87 mph, Sgt. R.A. Black said. The car soon turned onto southbound 220.
The trooper and fugitive reached speeds in excess of 90 mph, Black said.
That stretch of 220 is two lanes and curvy, and the trooper broke off the chase before they approached what he knew to be an extremely sharp curve, Black said. The trooper also knew other officers had set up a Stop-Stix device, designed to flatten a fugitive's tires, about a mile down the road.
The trooper lost sight of the car when he slowed down and could not say how fast the car was going at that point.
When the trooper rounded the curve, he came upon the accident.
Police believe the car being chased, a large sedan, lost control as it sped around the curve. The car had turned sideways when it struck Mays' compact car.
The compact ran off the road, hit a tree and flipped. The crumpled car ended up sandwiched between two trees.
Eagle Rock Fire Department Capt. Rodney Moore said Mays lived about five minutes after rescue crews reached him. Moore knew he wouldn't make it.
"I'm surprised he was still breathing," Moore said. "But, he didn't breathe long."
After the fugitive car hit the compact car, it also flipped over, hitting a third car in the process. The driver of that car, who was not seriously injured, was taken to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
The fugitive's sedan landed on its side in the northbound lane and was facing north. The two Kentucky men in the heavily damaged car, driver Timothy Stocks and Johnny Wayne Hayes, both believed to be between 18 and 20 years old, were flown to Roanoke Memorial.
A state trooper said the two might have some cuts and broken bones, but otherwise appeared to be OK.
No charges were filed immediately.
Black said a state police accident reconstruction team was expected to arrive about 9:30 p.m. While the troopers waited, so did dozens of truckers, a school bus full of students and several other motorists who were stuck on either side of the crash site. The road reopened about 11 p.m., Black said.
Another police chase in April ended in an accident which killed a Vinton couple and their infant daughter.
The driver of the car, Scott Carlton Allman, 21, of Roanoke was not seriously injured.
In June, he pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter. He will be sentenced this month.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB