Thursday, June 4, 2009

Teen Faces Charges In Connection With March Crash

By Sandi Mashburn
A Huntsville teen who was the driver in a deadly March automobile crash in Wayne County that claimed the life of a Iron City teenager, is now facing charges of vehicular homicide.

Reports filed through the Tennessee Highway Patrol at that time indicated that the crash occurred around 9:10 p.m. on Railroad Bed Road in the Collinwood area.

Officials indicate that driver James Kyle Gooch, 19, of Huntsville, Alabama, was traveling eastbound in a 1999 Chevrolet truck and was attempting to negotiate a lefthand curve. The truck reportedly left the roadway in a curve, traveled down an embankment, then struck a parked tractor trailer rig.

Officials reported that Gooch sustained serious injury in the crash while his passenger, Mason Reaves, 18, of Iron City, was killed. Neither, they reported, was wearing a safety belt.

The crash had remained under investigation through THP. They determined that legal action was warranted and sought an indictment from a Wayne County Grand Jury. That indictment was granted and Gooch has subsequently been arrested on the charge. Authorities allege that Gooch was intoxicated at the time the crash occurred.

Gooch is currently awaiting a court date while incarcerated through the Wayne County Jail under a bond of $50,000.

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