Highlands police chief charged in fatal crash

The police chief for the city of Highlands in Macon County was charged this week with misdemeanor death by a motor vehicle and failure to reduce speed after he caused the death of a 13-year-old boy.

N.C. Highway Patrol First Sgt. Chris Wood said Police Chief William "Bill" Harrell was driving his 1999 Chevrolet pickup truck at 4:22 p.m. May 8 on U.S. 23 near Sanderstown Road in North Franklin at the 55 mph speed limit when he slammed into a partially stopped 2007 Lincoln passenger vehicle. The impact severely damaged the Lincoln, operated by John Tastinger, causing the rear of the car to cave in, injuring 13-year-old Shane Tastinger, who sat in the right rear seat.

"It was a very tragic event; the Tastinger family and Mr. Harrell are very close. They're friends," Wood said. "They weren't traveling together. It was just happenstance that they ended up in the same place at the same time and that this collision occurred."

First responders took Shane Tastinger to Mission Hospital where he later died from his injuries.

The Tastingers' car stopped because another man, Adam Dover, had stopped to retrieve a ladder, which had fallen from his 2006 Toyota pickup truck into the left travel lane.

N.C. Highway Patrol officers charged Dover with failure to secure his load and providing fictitious information to law enforcement. Wood said Dover originally claimed the ladder did not belong to him, but later admitted he had lied after security footage spotted him with the ladder on his truck.

Wood said Harrell could have stopped in time to avoid or mitigate the crash, but they found no tire marks and a search of the truck's computer found that the brakes were not actuated. He added that Harrell said he didn't see the vehicle.

Wood said Harrell was charged with misdemeanor death by a motor vehicle because North Carolina law requires the driver who caused the death to be impaired by drugs or alcohol, which officers don't believe Harrell was at the time.

Dover and Harrell will appear in Macon County District Court on Aug. 28.