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

DATE: FRIDAY, October 22, 1993                   TAG: 9310220226
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TESTS SHOW DRIVER IN FATAL WRECK WAS DRUNK

Police have said Michael L. Jacobs, 23, was driving a car that plowed into oncoming traffic on the Roy L. Webber Highway early Saturday.

Brenda Jean Craighead Jones, 41, of Roanoke, was killed when Jacobs' car collided head-on with the one she was driving.

Jacobs was injured in the accident. He was listed in "very serious" condition Thursday at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

He has not been charged, in part because of his condition.

But according to a search warrant filed in Roanoke Circuit Court, authorities are pursuing charges of drunken driving and involuntary manslaughter.

The search warrant gave police permission to take medical records - including blood samples - from Roanoke Memorial following Jacobs' admission. Tests showed his blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit of .10 percent.

Jacobs reportedly had been playing in a band, then drinking with friends, before he tried to drive home about 5:30 a.m. Saturday.

A witness saw him drinking shortly before the crash, according to the search warrant, and two beer cans were found in his wrecked car.

The accident happened just south of the Elm Avenue exit.

Jacobs was in a southbound lane when his car veered to the right, struck a guardrail, then swerved across the median and into northbound traffic.

Jones was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to court records, Jacobs was convicted in 1991 of drunken driving in Roanoke County.

Keywords:
FATALITY