Former EHS student killed in Florida car accident

By Abby Morris
Star Staff
amorris@starhq.com

   A 16-year-old former Elizabethton High School student was killed in a single vehicle car crash in Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday at approximately 6:30 p.m.
   Angie Leroy had relocated to Florida from Elizabethton to live with her mother, Penny Leroy, approximately three weeks ago.
   Leroy was a passenger in a 1994 Ford Escort at the time of the accident, according to Det. John Hurst of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office's Traffic Homicide Division. The driver of the car, 18-year-old Justin Thomas Bass, of Jacksonville, was also killed in the crash.
   Two other passengers in the car were treated at a local hospital for their injuries. Corey Jay Leroy, 18, brother of Angie Leroy, of Jacksonville, was riding in the back seat of the car and was ejected from the vehicle when it collided with a tree.
   Ezekiel David Rook, 20, of Jacksonville, was the third passenger. According to Hurst, both Rook and Corey Leroy were treated at Shands Jackson hospital and were released.
   According to Hurst, Bass was traveling eastbound in the 8200 block of Commonwealth Avenue toward Interstate 295 and was passing vehicles in a no-passing zone. As he attempted to pass a vehicle in the middle of a curve in the westbound lane, another vehicle drove toward him. At that time, Hurst said, Bass swerved back into the eastbound lane to avoid a collision and lost control of the vehicle.
   "The vehicle spun 180 degrees, slid off the roadway and hit an oak tree," Hurst said. "She (Leroy) was killed instantly, her and the driver both." The two passengers in the car were treated and released at a local hospital for minor injuries that evening.
   The vehicle had been traveling at approximately 60 miles per hour at the time of the crash. "We do not know what the exact speed was, but we know it was at least 60 miles per hour because the cars he was passing were going 45 to 50 miles per hour." Hurst said.
   The vehicle struck the tree in the area of the driver's door. "It crushed it down to where the tree was right at the passenger's seat," Hurst said, adding that at the time of the wreck, no one in the vehicle was wearing a safety belt.
   Autopsies and toxicology reports are being performed on both Leroy and Bass because it is required by Florida law, except in deaths that occur due to natural causes.
   Hurst stated that alcohol was not involved in the incident. "I think it was just poor judgment," he said.