WHITE
Wayne Allen | Daily Times
A memorial has been placed along the road where a hit-skip crash occurred Sunday night. Troopers on Tuesday reconstructed the scene in Harrison Township. Jeremy White of Wheelersburg has been charged with vehicular manslaughter.
Wayne Allen | Daily Times
Sgt. Fred Cook and Sgt. John Howard on Tuesday reconstruct the scene of a suspected hit-skip crash.
FRANK LEWIS
PDT Staff Writer
A Wheelersburg man is charged with vehicular homicide and hit-skip involving a fatality after turning himself in Tuesday morning to the Portsmouth Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Jeremy J. White, 36, was the alleged operator of a 2003 Dodge Durango that struck a four-wheeler, operated by Jacob Dillow, 23, also of Wheelersburg. Dillow was flown by medical helicopter to Cabell Huntington hospital in Huntington, W.Va., where he died of his injuries.
Post Commander Karla Taulbee said White was driving westbound Sunday night on Tick Ridge Road in Harrison Township. Dillow, on the ATV, was eastbound.
“White was making a left turn into a private drive, and turned left in front of the ATV,” Taulbee said.
She said troopers found the Durango on Sunday night.
“We just didn’t find who we thought was the driver,” Taulbee said. “We talked to several more people the next day, and then we pretty much knew who the driver was, so we went to get the warrants for his arrest. We got them this (Tuesday) morning.”
Taulbee said White called to turn himself in as she was in the process of getting the warrants.
Taulbee said White had borrowed the truck he was driving from the owner, and had permission to do so. He was placed in the Scioto County Jail.
In addition to the vehicular homicide and hit-skip involving a fatality, both felonies, White faces misdemeanors charges of driving under suspension and failure to yield.
Crash scene reconstructionist Sgt. Fred Cook from the Zanesville Post of the OSHP was brought in to crash scene Tuesday morning.
“He’s the guru,” Portsmouth Post Sgt. John Howard said of Cook. “I’m in crash reconstruction, but Fred has been in it for years. He’s the guy who knows it all.”
Howard said the equipment he uses creates a scale representation of the crash scene and vehicles.
“We have a Total Station, which is similar to surveying equipment, forensic mapping equipment, to come out and map the scene,” Howard said.
Howard explained the science of crash reconstruction.
“We can take a lot of the physical evidence that we find here at the scene — gouge marks, scraped vehicles, it’s mostly used for speed calculation,” Howard said. “This is a little bit different, because we don’t have vehicles sliding to a stop, and we have vehicles of largely different weights.”
Howard said the investigation will give troopers a better idea of how the crash occurred.
A memorial to Dillow had already been placed along the roadside Tuesday as the troopers were investigating.
Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com.
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