The Accomack County Commonwealth’s Attorney said Tuesday, April 18, that no decision has been made regarding potential criminal charges against the driver of a vehicle that hit three people on Nocks Landing Road in Atlantic last week, killing a woman.
Commonweath’s Attorney Spencer Morgan further acknowledged in a prepared statement “several members of the community have contacted my office” regarding the incident.
He also worked to explain the process amid community fervor in the wake of the crash. A petition created Sunday on www.change.org advocating charges against the driver had gathered 2,100 signatures in two days.
Morgan said his office owes “a duty to all parties involved, and to the community, to ensure that the investigating agency, along with the courts, handle this matter with sensitivity and decorum in the pursuit of justice.”
Twice in the statement Morgan called the collision an “accident.”
Erika Cherrelle Bailey, 26, was fatally injured around 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12, when she, her daughter, and her boyfriend were hit by a sport utility vehicle.
The driver, Jessica Greenley Waterfield, 36, of Atlantic, was heading east in a 2021 Honda Pilot with a 3-year-old passenger. Neither was injured, according to state police.
Neither alcohol nor speed were “contributing factors,” in the crash, according to state police.
The 6-year-old child, who was riding a bicycle, was injured and lying nearby.
“We were just taking a walk,” said Bailey’s boyfriend, Duane Lee Turner, on Monday, April 17.
Turner and the child were hospitalized after the crash. He had returned home and the child’s condition was improving, he said.
The incident took place one-tenth of a mile from a 25 mph zone and about three-tenths of a mile from the Nocks Landing Road intersection with Atlantic Road, near the post office and Wolff’s Sandwich Shoppe.
The collision happened about 15 feet from Turner’s driveway.
Morgan did not give an indication in his statement of when the investigation would be complete.
“This office intends to carefully review all of the available evidence prior to making any decision,” he said.
