SOUTH HILL, Va. (WTVR)—Early Sunday morning a newspaper delivery driver was struck and killed by a drunk driver going the wrong way on Route 58 in South Hill, police said.
Corporal Rusty Gordon, was sitting in his Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Car, watching the area because of another call, when he spotted the wrong way driver.
"I second guessed myself, it looks like he's in the wrong lane, but I said, ‘I'm not sure.’"
Seconds later, Gordon puts on his blue lights, pulls out and tries to get ahead of the wrong way driver, from the west bound lanes. Six tenths of a mile later, Gordon looks over and witnesses the head-on collision between Maxey Ann Lynch's car and the wrong way driver.
The deputy completes a U-turn and finds the wrong way driver getting out of his car, while Lynch remains in hers. He talks with her until an ambulance arrives.
He didn’t expect the call he received a few hours later saying that the 61-year-old driver had passed away.
"I loved her very dearly. And yes I miss her,” Levi Lynch, her husband of 22 years said to CBS 6. Lynch is sitting in his living room surrounded by photographs of Maxey Ann Lynch.
"She was an individual that loved everybody,” he recalled. “She was highly intelligent.”
“She didn't meet no obstacle she couldn’t overcome and she always went the extra mile for you.”
Levi also delivers newspapers, and had pulled out of the driveway at the same time as his wife, both headed off to their routes. He told CBS 6 that he never thought he would be planning a funeral this soon for the the love of his life.
Chief Norman Hudson, with South Hill Police Department says the driver was first thought to be Tomas Santos, but later they learned his last name may be Gabriel. Chief Hudson says Gabriel does not have a driver's license and his only ID was from Mexico.
Gabriel is being held without bond, charged with involuntary manslaughter and driving under the influence.
A funeral for Lynch is scheduled for Wednesday.
