THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 22, 1995 TAG: 9506220466
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER CHRISTMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COROLLA LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Just four months after a fence to protect wild horses from traffic was erected at the north end of this Outer Banks village, a 2-year-old black horse was killed by a motorist early Tuesday morning.
At 2 a.m., a horse named Greco was standing on state Route 12 in front of the Monteray Plaza shopping center when Jonathan Kaullmann, 18, struck the animal with his 1988 Isuzu Trooper, according 1st Sgt. A.C. Joyner of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.
Kaullmann was driving north. The passenger side of his vehicle hit the horse, Joyner said. The horse was dead at the scene.
While Kaullmann, a Williamsburg, Va., resident, sustained no injuries, his vehicle was ``substantially damaged,'' Joyner said.
No charges were made in connection with the horse accident. But Kaullmann was charged with underage possession of alcohol, Joyner said.
``The suspect, who was under the age of 21, had been drinking, but not to the extent that he was found to be impaired,'' Joyner said Wednesday. A Breathalizer test was not administered.
Joyner said Kaullmann was not found to be speeding. The speed limit on the stretch of N.C. 12 where the accident occurred is 35 mph.
Greco was the first horse killed since 1993 and at least the 16th horse killed by traffic since 1989. Two horses were struck by vehicles last month, but both survived.
A $35,000 fence was completed in March by the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, a non-profit conservancy organization, to keep the horses away from traffic. The five-foot tall, sound-to-sea barrier extends one mile across the north end of Route 12. South of the fence, resort vacation rental homes and shopping areas abound. North of the fence are wilderness refuges controlled by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Nature Conservancy.
Despite efforts to contain them, the horses have managed to meander around the fence by wading through the shallow Currituck Sound. The 27 horses have been re-herded four times since the fence's completion.
Rowena Dorman, director of the Corolla Horse Fund, said even with the fence intact, it is difficult to keep the horses back.
``We are trying to figure what else we can do,'' Dorman said Wednesday from her office at the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. ``Nothing has really been enough. We do need to put our thinking caps on and come up with new ways.''
But Dorman said her organization is not going to surrender its five-year fight.
``What we want to do is continue trying to save the horses,'' Dorman said. ``It's dissapointing when something like this happens. It hurts. But it's not going to stop us from trying.
``We believe these horses deserve our protection, and we are committed to seeing this through.'' by CNB