45 who didn't make it home - 10/10/99

It's tempting to avoid dwelling on deaths of people you don't know. Reported on an individual basis, the day-to-day stories of drunken driving deaths are quickly forgotten. But cumulatively, the stories paint a bleak and shocking picture.

The following is a list of people who have been killed in alcohol-related automobile crashes in Tippecanoe and surrounding counties in just the past two years and a description of how they died. It also includes some crashes that did not occur in this area but involved victims from Greater Lafayette.

The Journal and Courier used coroners' records, police records, press releases and our own archives to compile as complete a list as possible, but there likely are some inadvertent omissions. Coroners from Jasper, Newton and Warren counties did not cooperate or did not respond to our requests for information.

Daniel R. Adsit III, 41, of Waveland, was killed Oct. 31, 1998, in Montgomery County after the 1982 Datsun 280-Z he was driving crossed the center line on Indiana 47, near County Road 700 South, and struck two vehicles coming from the opposite direction.

Adsit had been driving on a suspended license. A total of nine people were riding in the other two vehicles, a 1993 Lincoln Town Car and a 1998 Chevrolet van, driven by Brenda Jones, 45, of Crawfordsville and Linda Hopkins, 35, of Linden, respectively.

Adsit's blood-alcohol content was .11 percent, exceeding the state's .10 percent legal limit.

Harry Allen, 45, of Wheatfield, was killed Sept. 10, 1999, in northern Jasper County, when the motorcycle he was riding was struck head-on by an alleged drunken driver.

Police said Nancy L. Alexander, 41, of DeMotte, was driving her 1987 Ford Escort eastbound on Indiana 10 and may have been attempting to turn left on County Road 350 West when her car struck Allen. She initially was listed in critical condition at St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point and was discharged five days later. Police measured Alexander's BAC at .17 percent.

Joel Anes, 21, of rural Frankfort, died June 29, 1999, after the 1995 Mercury Mystique he was driving ran a stop sign and struck the second trailer of a double semi trailer at U.S. 52 and the Manson-Colfax Blacktop.

Anes, an employee of Laborers Union Local 274 in Lafayette, had been married for a year and left a daughter and two sons. The semi driver, Wesley Kirts, 29, Lafayette, was not injured.

Brett Appleton, 22, of Delphi, was killed July 10, 1999, after the pickup truck in which he was a passenger left the roadway and struck a utility pole.

The truck was northbound on Carroll County Road 1150 West when it went into the ditch on the right side of the road and sideswiped a utility pole. Police said the truck's driver, William Maynard, 21, of rural Delphi, had a BAC of .12 percent.

Appleton suffered serious head injuries when he was ejected from the pickup.

Maynard has been charged in Carroll Circuit Court with involuntary manslaughter, driving while intoxicated resulting in death, misdemeanor operating while intoxicated and driving with a blood-alcohol content of .10 percent or more. He is free on $12,000 bond and awaits a Nov. 29 trial.

Wesley Biddle, 39, of Monticello, was killed Aug. 7, 1998, after he drove his 1984 GMC truck off a White County road.

Police said Biddle was northbound on Indiana 39 near White County Road 250 North when he tried to pass a truck and went off the side of the road. His vehicle then went airborne, went over two driveways, struck a pole, flipped end over end and finally came to rest on the driver's side.

Biddle had a BAC of .36 percent.

Nathan A. Bohn, 15, of Oxford, was killed Nov. 9, 1997, in Benton County when the moped he was riding was struck from behind by a vehicle driven by an alleged drunken driver.

Eric D. Heim, 19, had a BAC of .10 percent when the pickup truck he was driving struck Bohn's moped as Bohn slowed down to make a left turn on Indiana 55 , police said.

Moments after the crash, a second pickup truck, driven by Jeremiah D. Davis, 19, of Otterbein, struck Heim's truck in the rear. The second crash was not a factor in Bohn's death, but Davis, who had been returning with Heim from Illinois, also had a BAC of .10 percent, the legal limit for driving in Indiana.

Davis was sentenced to nine months on house arrest and 13 weekends in the Benton County Jail after pleading guilty to driving while intoxicated for the second time in two years.

Based on a plea agreement, Heim received a one-year jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to criminal recklessness resulting in serious bodily injury, a class D felony, and consumption of alcohol by a minor, a C misdemeanor. A more serious charge of driving with a BAC of .10 percent or more was dropped.

Steven Randall Brooks II, 18, of Lafayette, was killed April 15, 1999, in a single-car accident at 3636 Indiana 25 West.

Travis T. Foster, 20, of Lafayette, was the driver of the vehicle, a 1997 Ford F-350. Foster was traveling east on Indiana 25 in the 3600 block when the car left the south side of the road just after midnight.

Police said Foster overcorrected, causing the car to travel across the road before exiting the north side of the road. The car crashed into a truck. Police said Foster's BAC was .18 percent.

Prosecutors say they intend to file charges against Foster if he is rehabilitated from severe brain damage he suffered in the crash. Brooks' parents, Georgia Ade and David E. Brooks of Lafayette, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Foster.

According to Tippecanoe court records, Foster had been arrested in January 1999 for operating while intoxicated, a minor consuming alcohol, failure to stop for an emergency vehicle and speeding. He pleaded guilty and was ordered to attend alcohol and drug evaluation, attend a victim impact panel, complete 80 hours of community service and pay a $500 fine.

James B. Brutus, 40, of Pine Village, died in a head-on crash June 27, 1998, on Indiana 25 West near Shadeland.

He suffered massive head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said Brutus' car crossed left of center and hit head-on with a vehicle driven by Charles A. McCorkle, of West Point. Brutus' blood-alcohol results were not available.

Alberta Connor, 84, of Lafayette, was killed Nov. 11, 1997, at Greenbush and 18th Streets when a drunken driver ran a stop sign and slammed his Chevrolet Blazer into her vehicle.

Jason Lee Eberly, 25, Lafayette, was sentenced July 31, 1998, to three years behind bars and three years of probation. Superior Court Judge Don Johnson also ordered Eberly to complete a minimum of 500 hours of community service, speaking publicly about the dangers of drinking and driving and how it affects people's lives.

Eberly's .20 percent BAC was twice the legal limit. He told police that he had worked the third shift at Alcoa, then spent 5 1/2 hours the morning of the crash drinking with co-workers.

David E. Flaherty, 48, of Monticello, was killed May 7, 1999, in White County at Indiana 43 and Smithson Road after the vehicle he was driving was struck by a vehicle driven by Chad Tam, 18, of Monticello.

Witness statements indicate that Tam, who was westbound on Smithson Road, failed to yield to oncoming traffic on Indiana 43. His vehicle then struck Flaherty's vehicle. Both vehicles came to rest in a field on the northwest corner of the intersection.

Flaherty died at the scene as a result of his injuries. Tam, who graduated last year from North White High School, had a BAC of .24 percent.

Michael L. Floyd, 36, of rural Frankfort, died at the scene from massive injuries June 11, 1999, after his Dodge Dakota pickup truck went left of center near Clinton County Road 380 East and struck a semi trailer head-on at 3:57 a.m.

Police said Floyd was eastbound and struck a westbound semi driven by Luis H. Lopez, 30, of Chicago. The collision sparked an explosion and fire that destroyed the pickup truck, the semi-tractor and most of the trailer, which contained mufflers and other auto parts.

Floyd, a father of three, was a painter at Subaru-Isuzu Automotive Inc. His blood-alcohol results were not available.

Matthew Foster, 17, of Zionsville, was killed Aug. 9, 1998 when the vehicle he was driving southbound on Indiana 29, near Clinton County Road 500 North, crossed the center line and struck a semi-tractor moving van head-on.

The driver of the moving van, Carol Duncan, 39, of Galveston, was not injured. Clinton County Coroner Larry Fish said Foster's BAC was .17 percent.

Susan Garnes, 20, and Rebecca Greenen Harris, 17, both of Monticello, were killed March 9, 1998, in a 5:55 a.m. one-vehicle crash in Monticello. Police said an autopsy indicated Garnes, the driver, had a BAC of .12 percent at the time of her death.

Both women suffered massive trauma when the 1996 Pontiac Grand Am Garnes was driving northbound on Main Street went off the west side of the road, slid sideways and struck the 50-inch trunk of a black walnut tree, tearing the car in two pieces at the dashboard.

Harris, who lived in the Monticello area most of her life, was divorced and left two sons. She had attended North White schools and worked at Burger King in Lafayette.

Garnes, a Monticello resident, was married and left two daughters.

John Greenwalt, 20, of Cheyenne, Wyo. and Jennifer Rosner, 19, of West Lafayette, were killed in Wyoming on May 15, 1999, when they crossed paths with an alleged drunken driver.

The driver, Airman 1st Class Quay Sampsell, 21, of Pennsylvania, had a BAC of .27 percent following the crash.

Friends of Sampsell told authorities that he had been drinking at a Cheyenne bar and that they attempted to prevent him from driving shortly before the 12:30 a.m. collision, police said.

Greenwalt and Rosner were killed instantly when their Honda Civic was struck by Sampsell's Dodge pickup, which witnesses said ran a flashing red light at an intersection.

After being hospitalized for two days following the crash, Sampsell spent 132 days in jail before pleading guilty Sept. 29 to two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide. He was sentenced to six to 10 years in prison on each count, with the terms to run consecutively.

Jeffrey S. Grott, 23, a Purdue student originally from Rolling Prairie, was killed March 7, 1998, when the vehicle in which he was riding left the roadway and overturned in Porter County.

Grott, a third-year engineering student, was pronounced dead at Porter Memorial Hospital shortly after the 2:58 a.m. wreck.

Grott was a passenger in a 1992 Chevrolet S-10 driven southbound on Indiana 49 by Joseph Hill, 23, of LaPorte. Police said Hill, who had been drinking alcohol, was approaching the Indiana Toll Road when he drove straight into the median and the truck went airborne and overturned. Hill's blood-alcohol results were not available.

Francisco Guerrero, 23, of Indianapolis, was killed Sept. 6, 1998, when the van he was driving north on I-65 left the road in Tippecanoe County, and rolled over several times. No other car was involved.

The crash, which occurred at 10:35 a.m., also caused bruises to the chest of the passenger, Nicasio Garcia, 39, of Indianapolis. Police said Garcia was taken to St. Elizabeth Medical Center, where she was released after treatment. Guerrero's blood-alcohol results were not available.

Thomas Hendricks, 24, of Marshall, was killed April 25, 1999, in Montgomery County after the 1986 Oldsmobile he was driving west on Indiana 32 crossed the center line and struck another car head-on.

Police said Hendricks' BAC was .17 percent.

The driver of the other vehicle, a 1997 Chevrolet Malibu, was Gavin Hallett, 27, of Noblesville. He and his three passengers, including 1-year-old Trey Hallett, were injured but survived the crash.

Dean Kenny, 38, of Lafayette, was killed May 6, 1999, after his pickup truck left a Carroll County roadway and struck a utility pole.

Police said it appeared Kenny had been traveling at a high speed on County Road 1150 West, near Poplar Hills Drive, when his truck left the road after he overcorrected, coming to rest on an embankment.

Kenny spent most of his life in the Lafayette area. He graduated from McCutcheon High School and was the owner/operator of Pools R Us. Kenny's blood-alcohol results were not available.

Mary Kusley, 64, of Indianapolis, was killed Sept. 28, 1998, after the 1997 Lincoln Town Car she was driving south on I-65 in Tippecanoe County drove off the road for an unknown reason after she'd been drinking alcohol.

Police said Kusley's car left the road, struck a guard rail and a bridge abutment before moving up an embankment and striking three trees, then rolling back down the embankment and coming to rest in a rock ditch. She was rushed to Home Hospital in Lafayette, where she died a day later. Her BAC was .24 percent.

Raymond J. LeDonne, 33, Chicago, was killed in White County Aug. 1, 1999, when his 1986 Harley Davidson motorcycle went off the north side of West Shafer Drive, east of County Road 400 East, and struck a guardrail.

Ledonne, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from the motorcycle and landed in a yard on the north side of the road. He was pronounced dead at the scene and had a BAC of .25 percent.

Dwayne McNorton, 39, Crawfordsville, died Sept. 23, 1997, in Montgomery County after his 1984 Chevrolet Chevette crossed the center line on U.S. 136 for an unknown reason, and was hit on the passenger side by an oncoming 1992 Dodge Dynasty driven by Nina M. Fenton, 72, of New Ross.

McNorton, whose BAC was .12 percent, was pronounced dead at Culver Union Hospital. Fenton complained of chest pain and a possibly fractured ankle, and her husband, William, 71, who had been her passenger, suffered bruises to the head. The two were initially taken to Culver and then transported by ambulance to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.

Elazar Mejia-Sandoval, 19, and his brother Lazaro Mejia-Sandoval, 34, both of Frankfort, were killed March 27, 1999, in Montgomery County after the 1998 Chevrolet Camaro Elazar was driving crossed the center line on Indiana 47 North near County Road 625 East.

Elazar did not have a driver's license. Witnesses told police that the car he was driving collided head-on with a 1994 GMC van driven by Terry Grino, 45, Crawfordsville. Grino, who was wearing her seat belt, was transported via helicopter to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. She suffered a broken arm and shoulder, and had difficulty breathing.

Elazar Mejia-Sandoval was pronounced dead at the scene, while Lazaro died at Culver Union Hospital. Both died of massive chest injuries, according to Montgomery County Coroner David Hunt.

A second passenger in the Camaro, William A. Concillan, 2, was flown via helicopter to Methodist Hospital to be treated for a broken leg and possible head injury.

Douglas W. Mitchell, 40, of Monticello, was killed March 13, 1999, in White County when his truck left Indiana 16 a quarter of a mile east of U.S. 421.

Police said he was partially ejected from the 1982 GMC truck he was driving. He had a BAC of .28 percent.

Arthur Mounts, 46, of West Lafayette, died Sept. 5, 1999, after the pickup truck in which he was a passenger ran off the road on Tippecanoe County Road 500 North near 419 East.

Police said the 1992 GMC pickup's driver, John Leaman, 38, who survived, had a BAC of .24 percent before the crash.

Vicki Perdue, 41, of Battle Ground, was killed Aug. 18, 1999, after the 1986 Toyota Corolla she was driving crossed the center line on North Ninth Street Road and collided head-on with another vehicle.

The other vehicle, a 1994 Buick Regal, was driven by Journal and Courier reporter Joe Gerrety, who was not injured. His wife, Michelle, who had been sitting in the back seat, suffered a broken leg while their 9-month-old daughter, Emma, who was secured in a rear child safety seat, was treated for minor bruises.

Perdue's BAC was .18 percent.

Justin Pettit, 15, of Wheatfield, was killed July 1, 1998, after he was struck by an alleged drunken driver while lying in a Porter County roadway.

The driver, Scotty Helton, 36, also of Wheatfield, had a BAC of .14 percent, police said. He faced felony counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Porter County Coroner Dr. John Evans said he was unable to determine how long Pettit, who died from blunt force injuries, had been lying on the roadway before the accident. He said Pettit's blood was found to contain alcohol, but not enough to have left him intoxicated.

Brenda Phillips, 39, and Mark C. VonArb, 42, died June 13, 1999, after VonArb struck Phillips while driving his motorcycle.

Police said Phillips was standing in the middle of County Road 250 East when VonArb struck her as he traveled south on his motorcycle around 2:20 a.m.

Police said the couple had been drinking alcohol at a local bar. Phillips most likely got off the motorcycle and VonArb was trying to catch up with her, police said. VonArb's blood-alcohol results were not available.

John Polk, 68, of Lafayette, died Dec. 29, 1997, after he drove his car the wrong direction on Sagamore Parkway, swerved to avoid a collision and went off a bridge.

At about 11:30 p.m., witnesses told police that Polk was driving eastbound in the westbound lanes of Sagamore Parkway, just east of Duncan Road, when he swerved into the median to avoid oncoming traffic. He was dead at the scene from internal injuries. His blood-alcohol content was .26 percent, more than twice the legal limit for intoxication.

His 1976 Oldsmobile Delta 88 struck an embankment near the bridge that carries Sagamore Parkway over North Ninth Street Road near the Landis & Gyr plant. The car went airborne and landed frontward on the pavement of North Ninth Street Road before coming to a rest upright. Polk's blood-alcohol results were not available.

Ronald R. Ramirez, 35, Monticello, died Sept. 28, 1999, after he drove his car off a Monticello roadway and struck several trees.

Police said Ramirez was eastbound on Francis Street near North Main Street when his Chevrolet Turbo left the road. White County Coroner Bernie Cook said Ramirez, who had a .28 blood-alcohol content at the time of the accident, wasn't wearing a seat belt and died of multiple skull fractures.

Kala Robinson, 23, West Lafayette, was killed March 6, 1998 after he drove a pickup truck off the road on Indiana 25 North near the Carroll County line.

Police said the truck had been reported stolen earlier that morning from in front of T.A. Tom's, a West Lafayette bar at 125 Pierce St.

Police said Robinson drove the truck left of center, overcorrected and drove off the right side of the road. Robinson's blood-alcohol results were not available.

Sue Scipio, 43, West Point, was killed June 9, 1999, when the motorcycle she was riding left the roadway on Indiana 25, two miles south of Shadeland, and flipped.

Police said Scipio received massive head injuries after being thrown from the motorcycle. She was taken to Home Hospital, where she later died.

Michael Secor, 34, and his passenger, Thomas O'Bannon, 39, both of Indianapolis, were killed Nov. 30, 1998, when the 1989 Subaru that Secor was driving rear-ended a northbound semi-tractor trailer on I-65 three miles north of Indiana 18 at about 2:17 a.m.

Secor, who had a BAC of .24 percent, died at the scene from massive chest injuries. O'Bannon was taken to St. Elizabeth Medical Center, where he died from massive head and chest injuries.

Earl E. "Chip" Smith III, 20, Riverton, Ill., Sarah Towery, 24, Auburn, Ill., and Jeffrey A. Pedone Trout, 39, Lafayette, were killed when the pickup truck Trout was driving struck a car carrying Smith and Towery.

Police said Trout's truck crossed the center line and crashed head-on into Smith's car. A toxicology study on Trout indicated he had a blood-alcohol content of .27 percent at the time of the crash. He also had cocaine metabolites in his blood.

Trout had been convicted three times for driving while intoxicated and had a fourth drunken driving case pending at the time of his death.

Thomas A. Smith, 33, Battle Ground, died Sept. 26, 1999, after crashing his motorcycle in West Lafayette.

Police said Smith suffered severe head and neck injuries in the crash. He was traveling south on Salisbury Street when he left the road and struck a utility pole on the southwest corner Salisbury and Sycamore Lane. He died later at St. Elizabeth Medical Center.

Smith had a BAC of .10.

Constance Wheeldon, 26, Monticello, was killed Oct. 4, 1998, when the pickup truck in which she was riding, driven by Michael Rowlands, 24, Monticello, struck a semi-tractor trailer parked behind the Monticello Kmart.

The collision occurred at 5:55 p.m. Rowlands, whose BAC was .13 at the time of the crash, was treated and released from White County Memorial Hospital. Rowlands was convicted of operating a vehicle with an unlawful BAC while causing death, and sentenced to 15 years in prison, with five years suspended.

Betty J. Woolf, 76, of Lafayette, died Oct. 12, 1998, in Palo Alto, Calif., nine days after the car in which she was a passenger collided with one driven by an intoxicated 19-year-old.

Police said a Honda, driven by Jeffrey Houts at a speed of about 70 mph, crossed the center line at about 11 p.m. and collided head-on with a Plymouth sedan in which Woolf was riding with her two sisters. The Plymouth's driver, Annabelle Culbertson, 68, of Hayward, Calif., suffered a broken leg. Woolf's other sister in the car, Marilyn Mae Haupt, 64, of Lafayette, was hospitalized with broken ribs and internal bleeding.

Houts was killed instantly. His passenger, 18-year-old Scott Robinson of Pleasanton, Calif., survived but has suffered some brain damage. Houts' BAC was .13 at the time of the crash.

Chad Wright, 22, Frankfort, was killed June 13, 1998, in a one-vehicle crash in Clinton County.

Police said Wright was driving a 1993 Buick east on County Road 300 North, near 1000 East, when the car left the roadway, struck a utility pole, flipped over and came to rest on its wheels.

Wright had made the dean's list for spring semester at Indiana State University. His blood-alcohol results were not available.

Tiffany Young, 21, a Hillsboro, Ala., native and Purdue women's basketball player, was killed July 31, 1999, in Gary when the vehicle in which she was riding was struck by an alleged drunken driver in Gary.

Young had been a passenger in her boyfriend's car at the time of the crash. The alleged drunken driver, Arnold Eaton, 33, of Gary, was arrested by Gary police and had a blood-alcohol content of .30.

Eaton was being held in the Lake County Jail on a Class C felony charge of causing death while operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.

Chad Wright of Frankfort, who died June 13, 1998, in an automobile crash in Clinton County, had not attended Indiana State University. The information was incorrect Sunday, Oct. 10, on Page A9.

In the special report, "OWI: The Price of Drinking and Driving," published Oct. 10 in the Journal and Courier, the blood-alcohol contents of the following drivers involved in alcohol-related fatalities were omitted: