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Driver believed drunk in fatal Huntington crash

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A Barboursville woman is dead and two police officers are fortunate to be alive according to investigators after a collision on Interstate 64 in the Huntington area early Friday morning.

Christine Lawhon, 34, was driving the vehicle was killed when she drove her car into the back end of a police cruiser conducting speed patrols in a construction zone, police said.

“They were outside their cruiser with a hand-held radar gun when they saw this car approaching at a high rate of speed inside the barriers where they were located instead of in the one open traffic lane,” said Huntington Police Chief Joe Ciccarelli. “They were both able to get back into the cruiser and put the car in gear trying to avoid the crash before the collision.”

The impact drove the cruiser more than 100 feet down the highway. The officers and a canine in the back of the vehicle suffered only minor injuries.

Ahead of the crash, Cabell County 911 received a report of a suspected drunk driver traveling east on I-64. However, the caller believed the suspect had exited the interstate at the Hal Greer Boulevard exit. Ciccarelli said investigators think this was the same car.

“We believe this is the same vehicle we received information on,” he said. “Certainly, that information coupled with evidence we’ve already recovered at the scene leads us to believe that impaired driving was a significant factor.”

Ciccarelli said the construction zone between the Hal Greer and 29th Street exits has been the scene of a number of accidents in recent months. The two officers were there on a detail aimed at slowing down traffic to insure the safety of the construction workers.

“If you look at the statistics there are many more officers killed in traffic incidents every year than are as a result of adversarial action,” said Ciccarelli. “This is a dangerous profession on many fronts.”





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