CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An eyewitness to a fatal collision Thursday on Interstate 77 told police the victim had no chance of avoiding a car traveling the wrong way.
Kanawha County sheriff’s deputies said Edward Pete Bryant, 48, of Big Chimney was on his way to work around 2:30 a.m. when he was struck and killed by a car traveling north in the southbound lanes of I-77. The crash happened just north of the Charleston city limits at the Westmoreland exit.
“This man was just on his way to work, minding his own business traveling down the interstate, and all of the sudden there was a car right in front of him,” said Captain Sean Crosier of the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department. “According to our eyewitness, there was really nothing he could have done to avoid the collision.”
Driving the approaching car was Angela Walker, 46, of Charleston. Crosier said investigators believe she was probably driving drunk. Walker remains hospitalized at CAMC Memorial Hospital.
“We’re fairly confident alcohol had some factor in this accident,” said Crosier. “She was going the wrong way and apparently had been for some time, down below the exit.”
Crosier said Bryant was passing a semi and traveling between the rig and the barrier wall when Walker’s car came straight at him.
“His vision was somewhat obscured, and possibly it came upon him so fast he just saw it at the last second,” said Crosier.
Investigators are unsure precisely where Walker entered the interstate. He’s almost certain it wasn’t the Westmoreland exit because of the position of the wreck. That would mean she had been traveling the wrong way either from Interstate 64 or possibly the Leon Sullivan Way exit, more than a mile away. Charleston police received a report of a vehicle traveling the wrong way, but didn’t find her in time.
“We’re not sure where she came from,” said Crosier. “We’re hoping somebody in the public will reach out to us and tell us where she was before she got onto the interstate.”