The North Carolina Highway Patrol has ruled a November fatality involving a high patrol officer an accident, and no charges will be filed in the incident.
However, some are saying the department’s story is inconsistent with that evening’s actual course of events.
At 5:49 p.m. on Nov. 21 a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Highway Patrol vehicle struck and killed pedestrian Romie Clark Bobbitt, 78, of Lambsburg, Virginia, according to the collision report.
The patrol vehicle was driven by 19-year veteran Trooper Darlene Haden Holt, of Salisbury, and the incident occurred between miles six and seven on I-74 in the Pine Ridge area.
In the initial days following the incident, The Mount Airy News requested from the department’s public information officer documents and files including witness statements and any available dash-cam footage. However, only the final collision report has been made available.
According to the report, the vehicle Holt was operating was traveling at a speed of 65 m.p.h. on I-74 and had slowed to 60 m.p.h. prior to striking Bobbitt. After being struck, Bobbitt’s body was thrown 213 feet.
Holt did not have her emergency lights on at the time she hit Bobbitt.
Shortly after the Nov. 21 incident Highway Patrol Sgt. M.W. Whitener said Holt’s vehicle was the second in a two-vehicle convoy. The first patrol vehicle was able to swerve and miss Bobbitt.
The report makes no reference to another Highway Patrol vehicle, nor does it list any other troopers as witnesses to the incident.
The Raleigh News and Observer asked the Highway Patrol’s spokesman, Sgt. Michael Baker, about Whitener’s statement on the night of the incident. Baker denied the existence of the first patrol vehicle to the News and Observer.
“Everybody I’ve spoken to that’s involved with the investigation knows nothing about a second trooper involved,” said Baker. “I talked to Sgt. Whitener. He did not know of a second trooper ahead of Trooper Holt.”
Additionally, Mike Cooke, a Greensboro resident who witnessed the accident, said he believed Holt was traveling much faster than the 65 mph. speed limit on I-74. He also said the trooper never hit the brakes.
“How did she slow from 65 (mph) to 60 (mph) without hitting the brakes?” asked Cooke.
Cooke also said he saw a vehicle swerve and miss Bobbitt before Holt hit the elderly man. He said he wondered why the first vehicle wouldn’t have stopped. He said he was doubly concerned when he heard the Nov. 21 reports indicating the first vehicle was actually another patrol car.
Furthermore, Baker denied any allegations of speed being at fault in the November incident which left the retired brick mason dead.
The Raleigh publication quotes Baker as saying, “The report shows she was driving the speed limit, and that’s why she was not charged with anything. The pedestrian basically darted out into the highway, and he was struck by Trooper Holt. Speed was not a factor in this.”
Baker’s statement differs drastically from what Cooke said in the days following the incident. He described Holt’s vehicle passing him “like a bat out of hell.”
The request for all documents and dash-cam footage related to the deadly events of Nov. 21 has been reiterated twice since the initial request was filed with the department’s public information officer on Nov. 24. As of Friday afternoon Highway Patrol officials had failed to turn over the requested records.