Six killed in wreck involving ex-Ala. football star
Published 11:45 pm Tuesday, November 20, 2007
DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — A van driven by former University of Alabama football star Siran Stacy was struck by a pickup at an intersection and six people were killed, including Stacy’s wife and four of his children, state troopers said Tuesday.
The driver of the second vehicle also was killed, said Dorris Teague, a spokeswoman for the state troopers.
Stacy, 39, a star running back for Alabama during 1989-91, was listed in stable condition in surgical intensive care at Flowers Hospital in Dothan.
Stacy, who has been employed by a mortgage company, was the first pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1992 draft, but amid injury and legal problems he was cut the next year. While he never carried the ball in the NFL, he played for a few years in Canada and for minor pro leagues.
State trooper Sgt. Tracy Nelson said the pickup was on the wrong side of the four-lane road when it struck Stacy’s van on the passenger side late Monday at an intersection on U.S. 84 about six miles west of Dothan.
Houston County Coroner Robert Byrd said Stacy had stopped for a red light.
‘‘The light turned green and they proceeded to cross’’ the four-lane highway when hit by the other vehicle, he said.
Nelson said investigators hadn’t determined why the pickup was in the wrong lane.
‘‘He hit them broadside, T-boned them at the intersection there,’’ said Houston County Coroner Robert Byrd.
‘‘I’ve never had anything like that in my life and I’ve been doing this for 20 years,’’ Byrd said. ‘‘The truck that hit the car was on the passenger side and the impact was substantial.’’
Stacy’s 3-year-old daughter, Shelly, was taken to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, which did not release her condition.
Byrd identified the victims as Stacy’s wife, Ellen Stacy, 36; children Lequisa, 18, Bronson, 10, Sidney, 8, and Ellie, 2, all of Newton in southeast Alabama; and pickup driver Adam W. Wayman, 29, of Dothan.