Deputy fired after wreck at car lot

Nov. 19--A sheriff's deputy speeding to help another officer Sunday morning lost control of his vehicle and careened into a car lot, striking four other cars and sending one of them smashing into a building.

James Wesley Chester, 31, was fired Monday, said Jimmy Harrison, director of human resources for Caldwell County.

The firing followed an investigation into whether Chester violated a Caldwell County Sheriff's Office policy requiring deputies who are on their way to answer an emergency call to do so with "due regard for the safety of others." Chester was initially on paid administrative leave.

Chester was driving 80 to 85 mph in a 45-mph zone on Creekway Drive about 11:20 a.m. Sunday when, rounding a curve, the back end of his vehicle began to slide, causing Chester to lose control of his vehicle, which skidded sideways into the lot of Tim's Automotive, Trooper Timothy Rathbone of N.C. Highway Patrol said.

Chester was on his way to help an officer who had reported that he was dealing with someone who had a stolen vehicle and possibly had a weapon, Rathbone said.

Chester was taken to Caldwell Memorial Hospital and later released. He had no serious injuries.

Security camera footage provided by Tim's Automotive shows the sheriff's office SUV Chester was driving sliding into the parking lot and hitting a red SUV, which careened into the front of the building.

Timothy Sprankle, a co-owner of the business, said that the cars belonged to the business, which bought and repaired them so that they could be resold.

Sprankle said he initially was told that the damage to his building might force the business, his primary source of income, to close indefinitely. He had to turn some customers away on Monday.

"Without this, we starve," he said.

A building inspector told him later Monday morning he could reopen.

Tracy Hartley, the other co-owner, said he was grateful no one was badly hurt or killed. The security footage shows that several vehicles going the opposite direction of Chester's vehicle narrowly passed just before Chester came skidding through their lane.

"If it would've been a day we would have had customers here, somebody could have got killed," he said.

Sprankle said that the cars damaged in the wreck will be declared totaled by the business's insurance company.

Reporter Kara Fohner can be reached at 828-610-8721.

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