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Local Pastor’s Family Injured in Two-Vehicle Crash

   Written by on August 15, 2019 at 12:15 pm

(Published with permmission from South Boston News & Record)

TruckHouse1xx_thumbHALIFAX COUNTY – Charges are pending in a two-vehicle crash last Tuesday afternoon, August 6,  between Halifax and Scottsburg that injured four people in a passenger sedan — three of them children — and knocked a logging rig off the roadway and into a modular home at 1012 Temple Hill Road.

The tractor trailer, owned by LP Dugger Logging of Brodnax, was forced off the road after being struck by a 2017 Toyota Camry that reportedly ran a stop sign at the intersection of Temple Hill Road and Bethel Road. The Camry was driven by Miroung (Mary) Go of Keysville and was carrying three children.

“The car ran the stop sign, then the truck hit the car,” explained Halifax Police Chief Stuart Comer, who was at the scene of the crash Tuesday.

Virginia State Trooper K. R. Martin said charges are likely against Go, although he is continuing to investigate the circumstances of the crash. “I would say so, but I haven’t charged anybody yet,” he said.

The vehicles collided as the tractor trailer was heading east through the intersection of Temple Hill Road and Bethel Road and Go was driving north. The impact of the collision sent the log truck swerving into a mobile home belonging to Pattie and Robert Hatcher. The Hatcher family of six lives at the dwelling.

Pattie Hatcher was at home at the time and came running out to find the yard filled with fragments of glass and the truck wreckage lodged in the back corner of the trailer’s brick foundation. Her husband Robert had been resting inside the home after getting off work.

The tractor trailer rig was jammed in the side of the residence, seeming to keep the entire house from collapsing. However, after the rig was extracted some five hours later — enough time for the family to get their possessions out — the structure remained standing.

The home is unlivable, however, and both vehicles involved — the Toyota and a 2019 Peterbilt logging rig, valued at $150,000 — were destroyed.

More serious is the injury toll to the family inside the sedan. One of the children was airlifted for medical treatment immediately after the crash, and a second child was reportedly transported by helicopter for treatment at Duke after first being taken to Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital. Go was also transferred to Duke.

Go’s husband, Ohhwan Freedman Kim, is the pastor at Keysville United Methodist Church. The church released an update on social media on Wednesday of last week: “Sue [the oldest daughter] is being released today praise the Lord. Mary had to have surgery for internal bleeding but she is doing OK at this time. Hannah [the youngest daughter] has been released. Tony [the 12 year old boy] is still in critical condition. He has severe head/brain trauma. He had surgery last night to reduce swelling and bleeding.”

Lawrence Dugger, owner of the Brodnax logging company, said the driver of the tractor trailer, Cody Austin of South Hill, was shaken up in the incident but not physically injured. He said Austin has worked for his company for three years and “is a very good driver and a very good person. He’s tore up about it. He’s got a little girl, too.”

The thoughts of everyone at the 25-employee trucking firm, Dugger added, are with the victims of the crash — both inside the Toyota and inside the home that was struck.

“Our company, our family, expresses our sympathy for the children, and for the family living at Temple Hill Road, said Dugger. The crash “was out of our control,” he added. “That doesn’t make it any better.”

A neighbor, a local firefighter who also responded to the scene, said that all emergency services personnel could do was “try to jack the house up and get the truck out from underneath it.”

“It knocked it off its foundation and moved it at least two feet,” the neighbor said. “Just look at the porch.”

The trailer home was cordoned off with yellow tape, and firefighters set up impromptu traffic control to ward off any further accidents.

Neighbors and residents said they heard the crash and came outside to see what had happened. They say Temple Hill is a tight knit community where all the neighbors know one another.

“Everybody is friends with everybody,” explained neighbor Kavanzo Arnold, who lives down the street at 4252 Cowford Road. “I’m the one that called 911.”

Later, Arnold drove his lawnmower to the scene and handed out water bottles to the public safety personnel. He said that he knew the Hatchers and members of the family are involved with the rescue squad.

“They were always saying, ‘Someone’s going to hit us.’ And today was the day,” Arnold said.

Arnold said the intersection has seen more than one accident, which he blames on a large building that blocks the line of sight at the Temple Hill Road and Bethel Road crossing.

“This is the fourth accident they’ve had,” Arnold said. “Last year my cousin got killed on this corner.”

Arnold said his cousin, Raymond Poindexter, was struck by a log truck while crossing the intersection.

He said that he has spoken to Sheriff Fred Clark about what could be done to improve safety in the neighborhood, including a request that caution signs be installed at the crossing. He also wants to condemn the building that blocks the line of sight.

But for now, Arnold said he was most concerned for the family.

“They can’t stay in there because it’s unstable.”

Since the accident, friends and family have set up a Facebook page where people can go to make donations to the Hatcher family as they are displaced from their home. The page is titled Hatcher Family House Accident.

(Photo courtesy SoVANow.com)

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