TUSCUMBIA, AL : Colbert man killed in Monday morning accident on Wednesday, February 1st 2017

A Colbert County man was killed early Wednesday morning in a one-vehicle wreck that occurred within sight of his home.

Senior Trooper Johnathan Appling, a public information officer with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, identified the victim as Stanley Alan Coan, 54, of Tuscumbia.

Coan was pronounced dead at the scene by Colbert County Coroner Carlton Utley.

The accident occurred on Baker Lane near the Emette Holland Road intersection south of U.S. 72 and about a mile west of Tuscumbia.

Utley said Coan lived on Baker Lane.

Appling said the accident occurred around 5:30 a.m.

Reports indicate Coan was driving a 2008 Chevrolet HHR that was going north on Baker Lane.

Appling said the vehicle left the roadway and overturned.

“Coan, who was not using a seat belt, was ejected from the vehicle,” he said.

Emergency personnel at the scene said the vehicle went off the east side of the roadway, flipped, and then slid on its roof for several feet. It appeared Coan was thrown from the car’s sun roof.

Authorities at the scene said it appeared Coan had just left his residence when the accident happened.

“It was sad to stand there at the scene and see his house and know he had just left the safety of his home and this happened,” Utley said. ”That just goes to show that you never know when an accident can happen.”

According to a survey by a national insurance company, it is not uncommon for accidents to occur near a victim’s home. In that survey, it was determined almost one out of three traffic accidents occur within a mile of the motorist’s home.

Coan is the first traffic fatality this year in the northwest Alabama region and the southern Tennessee counties of Wayne and Lawrence.

The accident remains under investigation by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s Quad-Cities Troopers Post.

Source :
Colbert man killed in Monday morning accident