Police: Driver in fatal crash was drunk

Published 3:55 pm Friday, December 4, 2009

Wiggins police say a Tennessee motorist involved in a three-vehicle crash in which he and a college student died was driving while intoxicated.

Police Investigator Paul Brown said that toxicology reports showed that Robert McCollum of Pulaski, Tenn., had a blood alcohol content of 0.23 percent. In Mississippi, a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent is considered legally intoxicated.

Brown says McCollum was driving the wrong way in the southbound lane of U.S. Highway 49 on Nov. 24 when he collided with a vehicle being driven by University of Mississippi student Ryan Spencer Roberts of Ocean Springs. McCollum and Roberts died in the crash.

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Brown says a third vehicle hit Roberts’ vehicle. That driver was not seriously hurt.