Wreck kills 2 Selma men

Published 12:00 am Monday, July 15, 2002

In a dangerous weekend on Alabama roads, two young Selma men were killed Saturday night in a two-vehicle collision.

William Joshua Campbell, 17, of Selma, was driving on U.S. Highway 80 around 9:40 p.m. Saturday when his car collided with another car. Campbell was killed in the accident.

Michael Allison Blake, 20, of Selma, was a passenger in Campbell’s car and was also killed in the wreck.

Email newsletter signup

Spokesmen for the State Troopers’ office in both Selma and Montgomery refused to give any information on the wreck or how it was caused. According to an Associated Press report, Blake was wearing a seatbelt in the accident but Campbell was not, according to troopers.

Lawrence Funeral Home has been entrusted with funeral arrangements for both Allison and Campbell and will release them Monday.

The deaths, which happened about a mile west of Selma, were two of 11 across the state this weekend.

Crystal Landon, 44, was killed in the head-on collision on Interstate 10 about five miles west of Mobile at 12:45 a.m. Saturday. Troopers said the Las Vegas, Nev., woman was a passenger in a vehicle struck by a second vehicle driving the wrong direction on the interstate. The driver of the second vehicle, Rachel Indovina, 38, of Baton Rouge, La., also was killed.

Troopers said seat belts were not in use in that I-10 crash.

An accident on Interstate 65 in Autauga County killed a pedestrian about 4:49 a.m. Saturday, but troopers were unable to release the victim’s name because relatives had not been notified by Sunday.

Matthew Travis King, 20, of Limestone County, was killed around 4:30 a.m. Saturday when his car ran off Pepper Road and struck a tree. Athens police said King was wearing a seat belt.

A Canadian motorcyclist died in a two-vehicle wreck six miles north of Gaylesville. Eric Jermy, 50, of Hagersville, Ontario, was killed on impact Saturday when a vehicle pulled out into the path of Jermy’s 1981 motorcycle, according to troopers. That accident happened at 1:50 p-m- on Alabama 35 in Cherokee County.

In Franklin County, Billy Wade Horton, 50, of Spruce Pine was killed Saturday about 8:15 p.m. when the vehicle he was driving ran off Old Nauvoo Road, about 12 miles west of Russellville, and overturned. A passenger, Gary Verdo Hallman, 39, of Russellville also was killed. Neither man had on a seat belt, troopers said.

In Colbert County, a 21-year-old woman, Devon Brook Gandy, of Russellville, died Sunday when the vehicle she was driving ran off county route 18 and struck a tree about 12:45 a.m., about a mile west of Littlefield. She was not wearing a seat belt, troopers said.

A fatal accident occurred about 12:01 a.m. Sunday in DeKalb County, about six miles south of Collinsville on Alabama 227, but the victim’s name was not immediately released. Troopers said the vehicle struck a tree and a seat belt wasn’t in use.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.