Family of fatal hit-and-run victim searches for driver
Joe Taylor wants to know who struck his mother with a vehicle and then fled. Brittany Greeson | The Roanoke Times
The Roanoke Times | July 11, 2014 | PDF and PDF
By Amy Friedenberger
When Joe Taylor arrived in Roanoke on Tuesday, his eyes darted from car to car.
The 25-year-old drove from West Virginia so he could talk to Roanoke police in the hope of finding the answer to a question that’s led him to call garages about anyone trying to get a damaged vehicle fixed.
Who is the driver who struck and killed his mother, Sandra Nadine Loughry, and then fled?
Early Saturday, a few hours after the smoke cleared from the July 4 fireworks, Loughry walked near the 3000 block of Shenandoah Avenue Northwest with a male friend. Roanoke police said that she was near the Shenandoah Restaurant when she was hit from behind at about 1:44 a.m.
The driver fled before police arrived. Loughry, 45, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Four days later, police were able to provide a description of the vehicle: a 2000 to 2002 Chevy Cavalier, dark in color. Police spokesman Scott Leamon said it should have damage to the front passenger side.
Taylor, whose eyes are now restless after days of trying to find the driver himself and helping police do the same, is hoping that with a vehicle description and talking about what happened, more people will keep their eyes open for the vehicle of interest.
“I just can’t believe some people will do this stuff,” said Taylor, who last saw his mother at Christmas.
Loughry was a petite woman with curly dark hair. But her son said she was strong.
One of Loughry’s favorite activities with her children was camping, which they did in June of last year in West Virginia.
“We’d have tournaments to see who could catch the biggest fish,” Taylor said.
Since then, both he and his sister, Nicole Taylor, had their second children, whom Loughry never got to meet.
“They took a mother away, and they took kids’ grandmother away,” said Nicole Taylor, 23.
Loughry worked at Maple Leaf Bakery, so Joe Taylor is holding a service in Roanoke for her friends to pay respects before he takes her cremated remains back to Morgantown, West Virginia, where most of her family lives.
Loughry grew up in Morgantown, then moved to Ohio before coming to Roanoke a few years ago to be with a man she was dating.
Her son said she was planning to move back to Morgantown in about a month to be closer to her grandchildren.
“You couldn’t have asked for a better mom,” he said.
Law requires driver to stop
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were about 33,561 traffic fatalities in 2012, or about 92 deaths per day. About 14 percent of people killed in traffic crashes were pedestrians.
Virginia had 777 traffic fatalities in 2012, and 12.6 percent of those were pedestrians.
Said another way: About 98 drivers killed pedestrians in Virginia in 2012.
And some of them don’t stop, even though the law in every state says they should. Virginia code says it’s the duty of the driver to stop in the event of a collision. And if there is any bodily injury, the driver should “render reasonable assistance to any person injured in such accident.”
So why don’t people stop?
It’s not necessarily that they’re immoral or lack empathy, said Paul Thomas Clements, a forensic and psychiatric clinical specialist and associate clinical professor at Drexel University who has researched hit-and-runs.
“It’s the panic of ‘What’s going to happen to me?’ which is sad, so they’re really not thinking about what happened to that person they hit,” Clements said.
Maybe drivers have an expired license, aren’t insured, were drunk or were in the country illegally. Clements said fear sinks in for the drivers, who are also going through a life-altering experience.
There are no clear national statistics on how often hit-and-run drivers are caught and prosecuted. Local statistics for hit-and-runs were not readily available this week.
Roanoke County Assistant Police Chief Chuck Mason said arrests are the result of a combination of efforts. Recently, he said county police arrested someone who was charged with hitting a pedestrian who sustained minor injuries. Police were able to identify the vehicle through debris left at the scene. Then they started a lookout and found a car — less than a mile and a half from the scene — that matched the description and had damage consistent with the incident.
“They were able to make a rapid apprehension,” Mason said. “But it varies from case to case.”
Leamon said community involvement is often important to solving these crimes. Clements said the public’s appeal to the driver can trigger the hit-and-run driver’s empathy.
“Typically, these people don’t have moral flaws,” Clements said. “They have to deal with those after the fact. What they worry about is being judged by the court of public opinion and seen as this person with a horrible flaw.”
Nicole and Joe Taylor are hoping the driver in their mother’s case will come forward.
“We lost her too soon, and in a way I never thought would happen,” Nicole Taylor said.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run can call Crime Line at 344-8500.
By Amy Friedenberger
When Joe Taylor arrived in Roanoke on Tuesday, his eyes darted from car to car.
The 25-year-old drove from West Virginia so he could talk to Roanoke police in the hope of finding the answer to a question that’s led him to call garages about anyone trying to get a damaged vehicle fixed.
Who is the driver who struck and killed his mother, Sandra Nadine Loughry, and then fled?
Early Saturday, a few hours after the smoke cleared from the July 4 fireworks, Loughry walked near the 3000 block of Shenandoah Avenue Northwest with a male friend. Roanoke police said that she was near the Shenandoah Restaurant when she was hit from behind at about 1:44 a.m.
The driver fled before police arrived. Loughry, 45, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Four days later, police were able to provide a description of the vehicle: a 2000 to 2002 Chevy Cavalier, dark in color. Police spokesman Scott Leamon said it should have damage to the front passenger side.
Taylor, whose eyes are now restless after days of trying to find the driver himself and helping police do the same, is hoping that with a vehicle description and talking about what happened, more people will keep their eyes open for the vehicle of interest.
“I just can’t believe some people will do this stuff,” said Taylor, who last saw his mother at Christmas.
Loughry was a petite woman with curly dark hair. But her son said she was strong.
One of Loughry’s favorite activities with her children was camping, which they did in June of last year in West Virginia.
“We’d have tournaments to see who could catch the biggest fish,” Taylor said.
Since then, both he and his sister, Nicole Taylor, had their second children, whom Loughry never got to meet.
“They took a mother away, and they took kids’ grandmother away,” said Nicole Taylor, 23.
Loughry worked at Maple Leaf Bakery, so Joe Taylor is holding a service in Roanoke for her friends to pay respects before he takes her cremated remains back to Morgantown, West Virginia, where most of her family lives.
Loughry grew up in Morgantown, then moved to Ohio before coming to Roanoke a few years ago to be with a man she was dating.
Her son said she was planning to move back to Morgantown in about a month to be closer to her grandchildren.
“You couldn’t have asked for a better mom,” he said.
Law requires driver to stop
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were about 33,561 traffic fatalities in 2012, or about 92 deaths per day. About 14 percent of people killed in traffic crashes were pedestrians.
Virginia had 777 traffic fatalities in 2012, and 12.6 percent of those were pedestrians.
Said another way: About 98 drivers killed pedestrians in Virginia in 2012.
And some of them don’t stop, even though the law in every state says they should. Virginia code says it’s the duty of the driver to stop in the event of a collision. And if there is any bodily injury, the driver should “render reasonable assistance to any person injured in such accident.”
So why don’t people stop?
It’s not necessarily that they’re immoral or lack empathy, said Paul Thomas Clements, a forensic and psychiatric clinical specialist and associate clinical professor at Drexel University who has researched hit-and-runs.
“It’s the panic of ‘What’s going to happen to me?’ which is sad, so they’re really not thinking about what happened to that person they hit,” Clements said.
Maybe drivers have an expired license, aren’t insured, were drunk or were in the country illegally. Clements said fear sinks in for the drivers, who are also going through a life-altering experience.
There are no clear national statistics on how often hit-and-run drivers are caught and prosecuted. Local statistics for hit-and-runs were not readily available this week.
Roanoke County Assistant Police Chief Chuck Mason said arrests are the result of a combination of efforts. Recently, he said county police arrested someone who was charged with hitting a pedestrian who sustained minor injuries. Police were able to identify the vehicle through debris left at the scene. Then they started a lookout and found a car — less than a mile and a half from the scene — that matched the description and had damage consistent with the incident.
“They were able to make a rapid apprehension,” Mason said. “But it varies from case to case.”
Leamon said community involvement is often important to solving these crimes. Clements said the public’s appeal to the driver can trigger the hit-and-run driver’s empathy.
“Typically, these people don’t have moral flaws,” Clements said. “They have to deal with those after the fact. What they worry about is being judged by the court of public opinion and seen as this person with a horrible flaw.”
Nicole and Joe Taylor are hoping the driver in their mother’s case will come forward.
“We lost her too soon, and in a way I never thought would happen,” Nicole Taylor said.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run can call Crime Line at 344-8500.
