By TAMARA JOHNSON
Managing Editor
A Forrest City woman eight months pregnant with her second child was killed Friday afternoon when the car in which she was riding was rearended on Highway 1 North in Forrest City.
The man police say was responsible for the wreck is expected to be charged this afternoon with two counts of negligent homicide.
Stephanie West, 21, 343 SFC 409, Forrest City, died Friday evening, along with her unborn child, at the Med Center in Memphis. She was transported by helicopter from the accident scene in front of Colvin's Country Carpets at 4625 N. Washington to the Med where she and the baby later died from the injuries.
The Forrest City Police Department reported the accident occurred about 4:20 p.m. about one mile north of Interstate 40.
According to police, West was a passenger in a 2003 Hyundai driven by her mother, Phyllis Ann Jones, 45, of West Helena, when the car was rearended by a 1999 GMC pickup driven by Lance Wade Carrier, 30, Colt.
Police reported the impact pushed Jones' vehicle 68 feet north and spun the car around in the highway. The rear of the vehicle was completely torn away.
Carrier told police he did not see the car stopped, and when he realized it was stopped, he slammed on his brakes, but it was too late and he struck the car in the rear.
Jones told police she was attempting to turn left into Colvin's Country Carpets when the Carrier vehicle struck her car in the rear. She also told police she saw the truck approaching, and she claimed he never slowed down.
Police reported there were no visible signs of skid marks left on the highway from Carrier's vehicle.
First Judicial District Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Chris Morledge said this morning that warrants were signed today charging Carrier with two counts of negligent homicide, a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by zero to one year in the county jail and/or up to a $1,000 fine. His bond has been set at $5,000.
Carrier, who did not have a driver's license, is also charged with careless driving. He was driving on a temporary driver's permit that was issued to him after his arrest earlier this month for driving while intoxicated, according to police. He was issued a portable breath test at the Friday accident scene which showed a zero reading. He is scheduled to be arraigned later this week in St. Francis County District Court on the negligent homicide charges. He is scheduled to appear in District Court on the Aug. 1 charges on Aug. 25.
The Jones' vehicle received an estimated $10,000 damage. Damage to the Carrier vehicle is reported at $2,000.
Jones and two passengers, Bradley McLaughlin, 21, 343 SFC 409, Forrest City, and two-year-old Kaydin West, 343 SFC 409, Forrest City, along with Carrier, were transported by ambulance to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Forrest City where they were treated and released.
According to a report at Arkansas State Police Troop D headquarters in Forrest City, seat belts were in use at the time of the wreck.
Arkansas Congressman Marion Berry and Senator Mark Pryor will be in St. Francis County this week to kick off U.S. Army Corps of Engineers work at a pair of sites.
According to a press release from the Corps of Engineers, a groundbreaking ceremony will open the 10 and 15 Mile Bayou Reconstruction project which will replace bridges on Highway 79 and on SFC 554.
The ceremony will take place on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at the bridge on SFC 554. The work will be done as part of an overall project to enlarge 10.9 miles of 15 Mile Bayou and 8.6 miles of 10 Mile Bayou.
"Anytime we can get the Corps to come in here and do the amount of work that they're going to do is good for the county. This work will improve that area and will give the county a couple of new bridges at no cost to us," said SFC Judge Carl Cisco.
The purpose of the expansion is to provide increased flood protection to rural and urban areas in the 260 square mile St. Francis River basin. The $2.8 million bridge replacement project is being done by Cameron Construction Co. of Jonesboro.