QUESTION: What’s the story behind a collision that occurred on Friday night between a marked Gibsonville police cruiser and a civilian vehicle?
ANSWER: According to B.J. Korn, a major with Gibsonville’s police department, there’s not much in the way of high drama to this car accident, which took place at “approximately” 10:48 p.m. on Friday near the Schar Center along Elon’s North Williamson Avenue.
“The officer was not on a call,” Korn recalled in an interview earlier this week, “and he wasn’t running his lights or his siren. He was just driving down the road when the other car pulled out of a PVA [a public vehicular area] and struck his vehicle.”
Korn noted that there were “no major injuries” in this two-vehicle wreck. He added that the police department called in the N.C. Highway Patrol to investigate the collision and file any citations that may be in order.
Korn deferred to the highway patrol about any additional case information, including the names to the two parties involved.
According to Trooper J. Green, who handled the investigation for the highway patrol, the two drivers involved in the accident were Stephen E. Powell and Officer J. Joyner with the Gibsonville Police. Green added that his inquiry has resulted in a traffic citation against Powell.
“The citation,” Green added in an interview Wednesday, “was issued to the civilian for failing to yield the right of way.”
Court records confirm that Stephen Eric Powell faces an infraction for allegedly failing to yield the right of way to the police officer. According to the citation itself, the 45-year-old white male, who hails from 333 Edgewood Church Road, Lot 11, in Mebane, reportedly “collided with the passenger side of [the] Gibsonville PD cruiser,” leaving both vehicles “not drivable” but the drivers with “no injuries.”
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