6/17/2009 6:05:00 PM Separate accidents claim three in county
By T.J. JERNIGAN Staff Reporter
Two people died and another was rescued from a submerged vehicle after an early morning accident early last Wednesday morning at Williamsville.
A separate head-on collision Sunday afternoon in which a woman is suspected of being under the influence of drugs claimed the life of a man on Mississippi 15 south.
Philadelphia Fire Department rescuers found a 2000 Ford Explorer upside down in a large drainage ditch on Road 606 beside D & W Tire after responding to a 911 call at 4:28 a.m. June 10.
Jordan Hall, 29, of 10660 Road 539, and Paul Randall Guthrie, 61, of 11023 Mississippi 15 south in Noxapater, were pronounced dead at the scene at approximately 4:54 a.m. after being trapped in the vehicle, Neshoba County Coroner Allen Collins said.
An autopsy report listed fresh water drowning as their cause of death, Collins said.
According to police reports, Hall was driving and a third passenger, Casey Fancher, 20, was in the front passenger seat when the wreck occurred.
Guthrie was in the back seat on the right side.
"I saw lights veer off the road and into the ditch so I got out to try and help," Lisa Barnes, an eyewitness to the accident, said. "When I got to the drainage ditch I saw the truck upside down. I could hear a girl's voice screaming for help, but I could not get down to them to help. There was just nothing I could do."
Fancher, of 12781 Highway 492, Union, survived the accident with only a few scrapes and bruises, the authorities said. A window had to be broken in order to get her out of the vehicle. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
The cause of the accident remains under investigation.
A second accident on Sunday claimed the life of Ricky Dunn, 49, of Road 505, when his truck collided with a Jeep Grand Cherokee on Mississippi 15 south near the intersection of Mississippi 485.
Cpl. Jason Walton, accident reconstructionist at the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said Sharon Harris, 45, was traveling southbound on Mississippi 15 and collided with an 1980 model Ford F-150 driven by Dunn.
Walton said the pickup truck flipped over and the roof of the vehicle collapsed.
Officers responded to a 911 call at approximately 1:43 p.m., and deputies of the Neshoba County Sheriff's Department were called to the scene to direct traffic.
Ricky Dunn was driving the F-150 and was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy listed multiple blunt force injury as the cause of death, Collins said.
His son, Randy Dunn, 24, was in the passenger's seat when the accident occurred and was taken to the hospital where he received treatment for minor injuries.
A second passenger, Jonathan Keen, 16, was in the bed of the truck. He was ejected from the vehicle and thrown into a patch of woods nearby, Walton said.
He received some cuts and bruises to the face as a result of the crash.
Authorities suspect that Harris was under the influence of drugs at the time of the accident and a felony investigation is ongoing, Walton said.
