Decatur, AL : 2 Decatur men killed: End of 2016 marred by fatal Limestone crashes on Saturday, December 31st 2016

The last two days of 2016 turned tragic in Limestone County, with three men killed in a pair of car crashes within 24 hours.

Two Decatur men were killed Saturday morning in a one-vehicle crash on Mooresville Road, approximately one-half mile north of Old Highway 20, Limestone Coroner Mike West said.

Robert Johaun Funk, 26, was transported from the scene to Huntsville Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Stephen Scott McIntosh, 25, was pronounced dead on the scene, West said.

Funk was driving a 1993 Honda Prelude south on Mooresville Road when the vehicle went off the right side of the road, West said. The car crossed back over the pavement and went off the left side of the road and struck a tree, West said.

"It was a broadside strike," West said. "The vehicle was wrapped around the tree."

Funk was not wearing a seat belt, West said, and was ejected from the vehicle on impact. West said McIntosh, a passenger in the vehicle, was wearing a seat belt and was entrapped in the car when responders arrived on scene, about 5 miles east of Athens.

Trooper spokesman Curtis Summerville said circumstances surrounding the crash are still under investigation but speed is believed to be a factor.

Michael Louis Stephenson, 45, of Athens, was killed Friday on U.S. 72 when the 2012 Ford Focus he was driving left the roadway and struck a utility pole, according to state troopers.

Stephenson, who was not using a seat belt, was ejected and pronounced dead at the scene, according to West.

The crash occurred at 2:30 p.m. on U.S. 72, three miles west of Athens near the Clements community.

Preliminary investigation indicates speed was a factor in the crash, troopers said, and the incident remains under investigation.

Of the 25 deaths statewide during the 2015 Christmas and New Year's travel period, 19 victims were in vehicles equipped with seat belts, but only four of them were restrained, according to the Alabama Department of Transportation.

Numbers from the 2016 Christmas travel season are not available yet, but, for the year, fatalities on Alabama highways have been up more than 25 percent from 2015. According to ALDOT, some of the more than 600 fatalities might have been prevented had passengers involved been wearing a seat belt.

"Almost 60 percent of the people who have died in vehicle crashes on Alabama roads so far this year were not wearing seat belts," Allison Green, Drive Safe Alabama coordinator with ALDOT, said in a statement urging motorists to be cautious during the holidays.

Source :
2 Decatur men killed: End of 2016 marred by fatal Limestone crashes