ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 2, 1996 TAG: 9612020086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: A Cuppa Joe
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY
Otis Payne was at Iron Gate's town hall on the evening of Sept. 30 when a friend came in and said, "Did you see that?"
A state trooper had just chased a car through town at a high rate of speed.
Trooper J.J. Daniels had clocked a sedan occupied by two men at 87 mph on Interstate 64 in Alleghany County. When he pursued, the sedan rocketed off the interstate and onto U.S. 220 south, a curvy, two-lane highway.
It carried them through Iron Gate, where the speed limit drops from 55 to 35.
"They must have been going 80 or 90," said Glenna Johnson, a town resident who was leaving church when the cars came through, "because ... I didn't realize they had a passenger in there."
South of town, the trooper backed off. He knew a bad curve lay ahead, and that other officers were putting out tire-flattening devices past the Botetourt County line.
But the fugitives sped into the curve and slid sideways into a car headed north, a car driven by Timothy Mays of Covington. Their stolen sedan flipped Mays' car into some trees. He died within minutes. The fugitives and a man in another car were injured.
Federal highway officials say hundreds of people die each year as a result of police chases. The debate over how, when and whether to chase was vociferous before the September accident near Gala occurred.
With Mays' death, many in Iron Gate shuddered at what could have happened when the sedan and the police car ripped by.
U.S. 220 runs through the heart of the town, which has 417 residents, including many elderly. The town is less than a mile long. A car traveling at 90 mph can traverse it in three seconds, according to Jackie Leathers, a Town Council member.
The highway averages 8,000 vehicles per day, and rising. It has become a constant worry for some, including Payne.
When he learned the details of the chase, he asked the mayor, Lethia Fisher, to write a letter of protest to the state police. Fisher agreed, but at the Nov. 21 town council meeting, she reported that she had difficulties with the letter, and asked for the council's views.
After an exchange of "heartfelt opinions," the mayor said, council voted 3-1 not to send the letter. One member abstained, and Jackie Leathers, Payne's daughter, was absent.
At first, Payne was perplexed; after the vote, he got angry.
"Suppose it had been your son or daughter who had gotten killed down there," he said the next day. "Suppose he had killed three or four of those kids coming out of the church down there. They said, `Well, [the trooper] was doing his job.'''
Edna Lucado, who saw the chase and disapproved of it, abstained.
"I wasn't sure what was right," she said.
"I really don't feel like I'm qualified enough to say who was right and who was wrong," said Mark Newcomb, who voted with the majority.
An administrative review showed that Daniels complied with the chase policy, a state police spokesman said.
And so the puzzle of police chases remained unsolved in Iron Gate, as it does in many other places.
Friends described Mays, an only child who lived with his mother, as quiet and intelligent. He had been on his way home from his job at Ritz Camera at Valley View Mall.
Timothy Stock, 18, and Johnny Wayne Hayes, 21, both from Kentucky, are in the Botetourt County jail, awaiting their Jan. 21 trial. Among other things, Stock, the alleged driver, is charged with second-degree murder in Mays' death.
"I still can't believe it," a shaky Sarah Mays, Tim's mother, said last week. "I just go over it all the time."
She wishes the police could find some other way.
"Maybe this will make them stop and think about it," she said. "It's not going to be just Tim. Somebody else is going to get killed."
What's your story? Call me at 981-3256 or send e-mail to kenn@roanoke.infi.net. Or write to me at P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010-2491.
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