the IMAGESMITH®: Roach Road

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Roach Road

5 Comments:

Anonymous said...: You posted it....it's beautiful!! Even better on the computer screen than the camera screen.; 3:02 PM EST
Nestor Family said...: This is a nice one!; 5:53 PM EST
Imagesmith said...: There are some days that my job just should not be. I shot this on the way looking for a wrecker service that had hauled away a car that three wonderful kids died in on this morning. I spent the afternoon with both familes and I honestly wanted to just hug them. I felt as if we intruded but they accepted us & told the story of their dead sons. I did not know them but they were surely special.I left with a heavy heart.
But the ironic thing here is that I didn't notice until I got home there were three graves under that tree. My pictures hold so many lasting memories & this is one that I will cherish.

Wednesday December 12, 2007
Routine morning turns tragic as car crashes into bus
by Kelly L. Holleran
Daily Mail staff
David Adkins, 18, could hardly wait to graduate from high school in the spring.
His younger brother, Christopher, 16, loved to skateboard, and was hoping to get one for Christmas.
Their friend Robby Sinclair, 16, was looking forward to giving his parents a framed picture of one of their family dogs, Missy, for Christmas.

Now two families are grieving for the loss of all three boys after a fatal accident Tuesday near their homes in Barboursville.

The three boys rode to school together every day, and Tuesday began much the same as any other morning.

Devona Adkins, David's and Christopher's mother, said David always drove. He got a call every morning from Robby, who lived a few streets over from the Adkins, who would ask if he was ready and what time they could get on the road.

"David would always be late," his mother remembered.

Not long after David and his brother picked Robby up for school Tuesday morning, he apparently lost control of his car on McComas Road, State Police Trooper R.S. Charlton said. About eight miles from Cabell Midland High School, the vehicle crossed the centerline, slid around, and its passenger side hit the front of an oncoming school bus, Charlton said.

Now a sign and a vase of flowers mark the spot where the boys crashed.

Tuesday afternoon Bob Sinclair, Robby's father, was standing at the side of the road, recalling the morning.

He said he usually heard Robby get up every day. The teenager loved to slam doors shut, Bob said.

But Tuesday morning was different. Bob said he didn't wake up before Robby headed off to school.

"This was the first time I haven't heard him leave the house," he said.

Later that morning, he received a call from his mother. She told him there was an accident on McComas Road, but initial reports indicated the car was a Camaro. Bob felt a sense of relief. His son always rode to school in David's Dae Woo.

But the report about a Camaro was wrong.

And then Bob heard there were three boys involved, and he said he knew.

The three boys - all Cabell Midland students - became fast friends in the past year after David and Christopher's family moved from Salt Rock to Williamsburg Colony, a little neighborhood in Barboursville.

David, a senior, and Robby, a sophomore, both loved motorcycles and dirt bikes.

David's motorcycle is still sitting in Robby's garage, Bob Sinclair said while sitting on his porch Tuesday afternoon.

"They about tore that field up," he said, pointing toward the end of the street to a sloping, grassy hill. It leads to a huge, wide-open expanse of land dotted with trees, just perfect for riding.

Bob said his son was a well-mannered, popular boy.

"Everybody loved him," he said.

About a dozen of Robby's family and friends were gathered at his home after the accident Tuesday, and praise for the boy rolled off their tongues.

"He was a good kid."

"He was polite."

"He had a lot of friends."

Robby would have turned 17 in just five days.

His father said he wasn't a typical teenager, though, and he didn't have a rebellious streak common among most people his age.

"He was kind-hearted," said Patty Young, his aunt.

He loved his dogs, especially his five-year-old Chihuahua, Peanut.

"He'd come in from school and she'd run to meet him," said Lori Sinclair, Robby's mother. "She sleeps with him every night."

Robby had an older sister, Sarah, 21, and an older brother, Keith, 23.

He also loved to spend time with his niece, 22-month-old Andrea, who called her uncle "Bubba."

He was doing well in school, and had already started to take one college class offered at Cabell Midland through Marshall University

He planned to go to college once he graduated.

Bob said it's still hard to believe the accident happened.

"They were just going to school," he said. "Robby's only missed one day the whole year. They were doing the right thing."

Robby worked at Steak Escape, and had encouraged David to get a job there. David had just started working there, and hadn't even gotten his first paycheck yet.

The brothers, David and Christopher, had always been close.

For the past three summers they'd been entrepreneurs, mowing neighbors' lawns and earning money, their mother, Devona, said.

"They worked really hard," she said.

They spent their free time together, going to the movies and to the mall together, she said.

"You just need some help with something, and they were there," said Angie Fletcher, their aunt. "They were both two really good kids."

David was taking one welding class at the vocational and technical school in Huntington. When he graduated from high school, he planned to finish his welding classes and get certified.

He was just as determined and outgoing when it came to making friends.

"He would talk to anybody about anything," Devona said.

Christopher, a freshman, loved to skateboard.

"He was a champion skateboarder with all those scrapes," said his grandmother, Alice Ferguson.

He loved tennis shoes, was known as the comedian of the family and prided himself on being his "mama's boy."

"Christopher was going to keep that title for as long as he could," his grandma said.

Both boys had an older brother, Anthony, 20, and an older sister, Tisha, 22. They had two nieces and one nephew.

Their father is Eugene Adkins. They lived with their mom and stepdad, Ron Kingery.

Their grandmother said she can't stop questioning why the accident happened.

"They had their whole life in front of them," she said. "I just don't understand. They were too young."; 9:39 PM EST
Nestor Family said...: Wow... when you know the story, this becomes a different, more incredible photo. Crazy sad stuff...; 10:46 AM EST
That 1 Guy said...: Heidi said it... it's a beautiful shot alone, but it's story changes the way that it's viewed.; 10:08 PM EST

the IMAGESMITH®

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Roach Road

5 Comments:

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