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If it happened, ifs news to us
Raeford 8c Hoke County , i .c.
Wednesday, May 25,2005
West Hoke car wreck claims three lives
Raleigh driver charged with deaths of his daughter and two Hoke women
it
Betty Blevins
By Victoriana Sum
mers
Staff writer
West Hoke
church-mates Betty
Blevins and Ruby
Strother Crouch died
on their way home
from worshipservice
at Ashley Heights
Baptist Church in a
two-car collision that also took the life of a
six-year-old girl.
Raleigh motorist Arthur Morris III failed
to heed a stop sign at Calloway and Reser
vation roads after his family attended an
equestrian event at the Carolina Horse Park
at Five Points, according to N.C. Highway
Patrol Trooper F.K. Crumpler. He said Mor
ris’ oncoming vehicle ‘ blocked the path” of
Blevins’ vehicle traveling on Reservation
where she had the right-of-way. A passenger
in the back seat of Morris’s Mercedes station
wagon, daughter Norah Elizabeth Morris,
was killed instantly.
Morris has been charged with three
counts of misdemeanor death by motor
vehicle and with a stop sign violation.
Crumpler indicated that speed did not
appear to be a factor in the wreck. The
estimated speed of both vehicles was
(See FATALITIES, page 6A)
TopJhefronthalfofa Mercedes station wagon lies mangled beside
Calloway Road 200 feet from its rear section (left), which veered
into a field. At right, the pickup truck in which Betty Blevins and
Ruby Crouch were riding.
This Week
Polocrosse
featured
in West Hoke
page 1B
Man arrested
for rape of minor
page7A
G)mmunity
Foundation
makes awards
Vietnam veterans
thanked
page 3A
Index
Business/Farm 5A
Calendar 4B
Classifieds 7-8B
Deaths 8A
Fxlitoriiils 2A
I^gals 5-6B
Religion 2B
Socials 3B
Sjxirts 4A
WeVe on the web at
www.thenews-journalcom
Citizens, leaders ask that road not be delayed
Palmer Street extension would aid industrial development, protect new downtown scape
By Pat Wilson
Editor
While citizens of surround
ing areas asked the state Dept,
of Transportation for new road
and highway projects for their
communities at a hearing held
in Raeford last week, Hoke
representatives begged that the
Palmer Street Extension project
not be delayed.
Construction of the $4.3 mil
lion project, which would fun
nel traffic from RaefoixI’s Main
Street, was schedule to begin
in 2006 but has beep delayed by
DOT until 2008. The nine-mile
project would extend East Palmer
to Highway 20, taking traffic off
Raeford’s Main Str^t. Serving
as a truck bypass, expansion of
Palmer would eliminate down
town as a short cut for motorists
traveling to Interstate-95 via
Highway 20.
Representing Hoke County
and Raeford, Dr. Bob Nelson
appealed to the transportation
committee to hear road project
requests regarding Divisions 6
and 8.
“I urge that this proposal to
delay the Palmer Street Extension
be eliminated from the2006-2012
Transportation Improvement Plan
(TIP) and that the schedule for
construction of this project be
returned to the timetable which
we in Hoke County have rel ied on
for several years,” Nelson said.
Engineers say the delay is not
due to finances but because ad
ditional design flaws have to be
ironed out.
One complication, they say, is
that an overpass across the Aber
deen and Rockfish Railroad and
some wetlands area will have to
be constructed.
Commissioner Bill Cameron,
representing Hoke, and Buddy
Blue, representing Hoke County
Republicans, also spoke against
the delay.
“We’ve been after (the project)
for 55 years,” Blue said. “When it
gets put off, it’s nothing new but
we are disappointed.”
After the hearing, which
was held in Raeford’s Civic
Center on Thursday, G.R. Kind-
ley, vice chair of DOT, spoke
privately with Nelson and Cam-
(See PALMER ST, page 3A)
Commissioners look at ambulance response time
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
Hoke commissioners are still in aquan-
dary over how to improve the response time
for FirstHealth EMS ambulances.
At a recent meeting, board members
indicated they think FirstHealth likely
needs to consider staffing more ambu
lances in lioke. Discussion came after a
false bomb threat at Hoke County High
occurred irt April. The bomb incident tied
up an EM^ ambulance .while a man who
was experi^nc ing cardiac distress, was kept
waiting. Otily after a Moore County EMS
ambulance was passing through Hoke on
its return hip to Moore Regional Hospital
took the c^ll was there a response to the
9-1-1 call.
County Attorney Neil Yarborough cau
tioned the board it might need to consider
the lack of alternatives before demanding
changes to its contract with FirstHealth.
Commissioner Bill Cameron retorted
that other ambulances services existed
current ambulance coverage to citizens.
The board initiated a contract with
FirstHealth EMS in October 2001,
agreeing to pay $215,(K)0 annually to
receive medical services and ambu
lances for emergencies. The existing
contract’s level of service is costing the
r S
e news
News
/sT Journal
with which the county could contract if a county $365,000 for this year, and that
satisfactory agreement is not reached on (See AMBULANCES, page 4A)
Police being schooled to look
for trends in children’s deaths
By Ken MacDonald
Publisher
Snap \’snap\ vi; 1. to break suddenly
with a sharp sound 2. to give way sudden ly
a bit more, “ wooooooooocx)w,” the words
of choice 10 or 12 years ago. For example.
In 1993 we were in St. Louis on a youth
groupmi^sion trip to tear down houses that
had been flooded by the Mississippi River.
under strain 3. to express disbelief syn After the first day’s work, we all headed to
whoa!, yougottabekidding, dude!, yikes the YMCA for showers. Oneoftheteenag-
ers was rioally really anxious about having
The expression “Oh snap!” appeals
in several online teen slang dictionaries,
but 1 have heard the phrase only among
middle-schoolers, and few at that.
It is similar to, “whoa,” or, if drawn out
to undreiss and showei in the compan> of
usolder folks and was really really relieved
when w^ arrived to find separate chang
ing roorris for youth and adults. But as we
(See OTHER STUFF, page 3A)
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
Raeford Police Department is the ben
eficiary of a new, mobile outreach program
spon.sored by the N.C. Medical Examiner’s
Office and the N.C. Justice Academy at
Salemburg. The goal is to raise awareness
of child deaths and to recognize trends
in these fatalities, according to Raeford
Police Chief Kevin Locklear.
State medical examiner Lisa Mayhew
hosted the two-day seminar in child
death investigation techniques. Her
classes included discussions on homicide,
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS),
child suicide, child abuse and neglect,
medico-legal investigations, and crime
scene investigations. Participating in the
course were 25 social workers, firemen,
medics, and law officers from the Raeford
Police Department, the Hoke Sheriff’s
Office, and Moore, Scotland, Robeson,
and Cumberland counties.
A report from The N.C. Child Ad-
(See CHILDREN, page 6A)