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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 16, 1994                   TAG: 9406210093
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE CITY CAN'T BE SUED FOR ACCIDENT

A judge has removed the city of Roanoke from a lawsuit filed by two women involved in an automobile accident allegedly caused by a city police officer.

Officer Fred Robinson was killed in the 1992 accident on Williamson Road as he responded to a burglar alarm at Valley View Mall.

Regina Heck and Melissa Collins, who suffered minor injuries when their car was struck by Robinson's patrol car, sued his estate and the city, seeking $100,000 each.

Their lawsuits, filed last year in Roanoke Circuit Court, claimed that Robinson caused the wreck by speeding without activating his flashing blue lights or siren.

At a hearing Wednesday, Judge Diane Strickland dismissed the claim against the city, according to City Attorney Wilburn Dibling.

Dibling had argued that the city was protected by sovereign immunity, a legal principle under which a city cannot be sued for performing a governmental function.

Dibling has asked that the remaining part of the lawsuit, against Robinson's estate, also be dismissed. Strickland did not rule on that issue Wednesday.

Heck, who was driving her car at the time of the accident, has told police that she did not see Robinson approaching from the opposite direction as she turned into a Williamson Road parking lot.

Robinson's car clipped the front of Heck's car as he attempted to swerve out of the way.

Robinson's cruiser then crashed into a building. He was pronounced dead a short time later.

by CNB