Published: March 26, 2008 10:47 am            

Argument leads to dangerous road rage

By Sean Bailey / Staff Writer

Two Laurel County men were arrested and charged with first-degree wanton endangerment after a dispute between them found its way onto Kentucky 363.

Buck Elkins Jr. and Harold Sizemore II had some sort of “misunderstanding” at the residence of Anthony Cornett on Highway 312 Monday night. Sizemore told police that Elkins blocked Cornett’s driveway, making it impossible for Sizemore to leave the property in his Ford Bronco that was also pulling a boat. According to police, Sizemore then alleged that Elkins threatened him with a metal pipe. In attempt to flee the scene, Sizemore hit Elkins’ Chevrolet truck, eventually making it out of Cornett’s driveway.

Sergeant Rodney Van Zant, one of the arresting officers from the Laurel County Sheriff’s Department, said no metal pipe was found at the scene or in either of the suspects’ vehicles. Van Zant also questioned witnesses, and none of them reported seeing a metal pipe. Elkins denies threatening Sizemore in anyway.

At around 9 p.m. Monday, calls began coming in at the Laurel County Dispatch Center reporting that a Ford Bronco pulling a boat, allegedly Sizemore’s vehicle, was being chased by a Chevy pickup truck, which was allegedly Elkins’ vehicle, north on Kentucky 363. The calls said that it appeared that the two vehicles were trying to run each other off the road.

According to Van Zant, at some point around the Taylor Bridge intersection, Elkins’ Chevy passed Sizemore in his Bronco and blocked the entire road way.

With Elkins blocking the roadway Sizemore put his Bronco in reverse and began to ram Elkins’ Chevy. According to Van Zant, Sizemore struck Elkins’ Chevy at least two times, totaling the Chevy and pushing it to within a few feet of falling off the bridge into a creek. Sizemore’s Bronco and the boat that he had in tow were also damaged.

Sizemore then continued north on KY 363 where he was stopped by deputies Jerry Jones, John Inman and Van Zant. During questioning, both Sizemore and Elkins offered different accounts of the events that led up to the chase.

“Both of these men were obviously not telling us the whole truth,” Van Zant said, “But for us that dispute was not the issue at hand, we were more concerned with how they had endangered everyone on the road.”

Van Zant said both Sizemore and Elkins were charged with first degree wanton endangerment and detained in the Laurel County Detention Center Monday night.

        

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