| 112th Year, 5th Issue | Thursday, September 14, 2000 | Sparta, North Carolina |
An Alleghany County man was charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless driving and driving under the influence (DUI) after a fatal accident that killed a Gold Hill farmer on U.S. 58 near Independence, Va. around 9 a.m. last Friday.
Judd Jennings Poe of Topia Road in Piney Creek was charged after his 1995 Dodge Ram pickup struck the back of a trailer being hauled by a tractor driven by Gayle Cox Phipps of Cherrywood Lane in Independence. According to police reports, when the truck struck the trailer, it caused Phipps to lose control of the tractor. The tractor then flipped over in the road and crushed the 56-year-old farmer.
Phipps was declared dead at the scene of the accident with massive head and chest injuries.
Poe, 21, told law enforcement officers on the scene that he braked and swerved in an attempt to miss the tractor, but was unable to do so. Poe also said that he was headed home after getting off work at Independence Lumber Company when the accident occurred.
He said that he had stopped by a friend's house after getting off work at his job at 3 a.m. and was just heading home. Law enforcement officers said Poe's blood-alcohol level was sufficient to charge him with DUI in Virginia, which is equivalant to North Carolina's DWI (driving while impaired) charge. If a driver has a blood-alcohol of .08 or higher, he or she can be charged in either state.
Police would not release Poe's actual blood-alcohol level to the media. Phipps was driving a 990 David Brown tractor and towing a wooden trailer westbound on U.S. 58, heading towards a field of tobacco. A few yellow burley tobacco leaves were still visible in the trailer after the accident.
An obituary for Phipps appears on Page 11B of this week's edition.
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Email: allnews@ls.net