Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993                   TAG: 9305180293
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

6-TIME SUSPENDED DRIVER BLAMED FOR WRECK THAT KILLED 3

Stanley W. Brooks, 22, of Roanoke was declared a habitual traffic offender last month in Roanoke Circuit Court.

He was the driver of a Mustang that went airborne on the Roy Webber Highway shortly after midnight, crossed the median, and plowed into an oncoming car.

Brooks, his passenger, Gregory S. Kinzie, and Geoffrey R. Pelton, the driver of the other car, died as a result of the accident.

"There is no question that it is going to be Mr. Brooks' fault," said Lt. Ramey Bower, who heads the Roanoke Police Department traffic division.

Police are still awaiting lab results to see if alcohol contributed to the accident.

Brooks, whose traffic-offense record was five computer pages long, was driving a Mustang belonging to Kinzie, whose license had been suspended for drinking and driving. Police said Kinzie still had insurance on the car.

The accident was the worst in the city since 1985, when two city firefighters and a woman were killed by a hit-and-run teen-age driver, Roger Lee White, on Shenandoah Avenue Northwest.

A third driver involved in Sunday's crash, Eleni T. Asimakopoulos, 62, suffered only minor injuries, but her memories of the crash will be with her for a long time.

She had just pulled onto the expressway about 12:13 a.m. Sunday when she saw the red Mustang hurtling toward her.

"He was flying so high, he looked like an airplane," she said.

"The people in front of me had no chance to do anything at all," she said. Asimakopoulos slammed on her brakes just as the Mustang rammed into Pelton's car, turning it into a pile of twisted steel.

Raymond E. Dykes, a passenger in Pelton's Hyundai, was in very serious condition Monday at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

The impact of the crash spun Pelton's car, smashing it into the front of Asimakopoulos' car. The wreck jarred the 62-year-old woman and hurt her chest.

"I couldn't do nothing," said Asimakopoulos, who is a native of Greece but has been a naturalized citizen of the United States for 36 years. "I didn't have time to think. I just went into shock."

That's when she heard other people screaming for her to back up her car. They were afraid that the two cars involved in the collision were about to explode.

"They told me not to worry," Asimakopoulos said. "They tried to calm me down."

She worried that the trauma of the wreck may leave her unable to drive again.

"I feel better today," she said Monday. "My children made me feel good."

Still, she poses a question that continues to trouble her:

"I'm still asking why those people were going so fast and killing innocent people," she said.

Habitual Offender\ Excerpts from Stanley W. Brooks' traffic offense record.\ \ 1991\ February: Driving with improper tags.\ \ March: Suspended, failure to pay fines. Speeding. Improper registration. No county or city tag. No seat belt.\ \ April: Suspended, failure to pay fines. Suspended, no insurance. Driving under revocation.\ \ May: Speeding, Roanoke County. Driving under revocation.\ \ 1992\ January: Driving under revocation.\ \ February: Suspended, failure to pay fines.\ \ March: Suspended, no insurance.\\ \ August: Reckless driving, Montgomery County.\ \ September: Suspended, failure to pay fines.\ \ 1993\ January: Suspended, driving under revocation.\ \ April: Adjudicated as habitual traffic offender in Roanoke Circuit Court.\ \ May: Notice mailed out to Brooks notifying him that he is a habitual offender.

Keywords:
FATALITY