Weekend wreck leaves 20-year-old woman dead

By Carey Phillips

Tara Michelle Lackey, 20, a WCU junior, died of injuries sustained in the 11:07 p.m. wreck on Buchanan Loop, according to Trooper D.A. Robinson of the N.C. Highway Patrol.

She was a passenger in a 1997 Chevrolet pickup truck being driven by Vernon Steven Woodard, a 17-year-old SMHS junior from Sylva.

Woodard was airlifted to Mission-St. Joseph's Hospital in Asheville. As of Tuesday afternoon, he was listed in serious but stable condition in the hospital's trauma care unit.

Another passenger, 15-year-old Leann Ensley of Sylva, a sophomore at SMHS, was treated and released from Harris Regional Hospital.

Woodard was traveling south on Buchanan Loop (S.R. 1348) at a high rate of speed, Robinson said. The vehicle came around a curve, crossed the center line, went off the left side of the road, struck a culvert, came back onto the road and overturned four times before coming to rest on its top, he said.

None of the occupants were wearing seat belts, and Lackey and Woodard were ejected from the vehicle, the trooper said. Lackey was thrown some 35 feet onto the left shoulder, while Woodard was thrown approximately 15 feet onto the right shoulder, Robinson said.

Robinson said Monday afternoon that charges against Woodard are pending. Jackson County District Court records show Woodard received a prayer for judgment Dec. 18 on a charge of speeding 78 mph in a 55 mph zone.

WCU records showed Lackey was a 1998 graduate of Enka High School. She lived off campus and listed a Sylva address. She was the daughter of Katie Kalarovich of Candler and Mike Lackey of Sylva.

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