A Georgia State Patrol trooper investigating the hit-and-run collision early last Saturday that caused the death of Tormenta FC 2 soccer player Carter Payne confirmed Wednesday that investigators are still looking for witnesses in the absence of any known video.
Payne, 20, was riding a Lime electric scooter when he was struck by an unknown motor vehicle directly in front of Food World on Fair Road, part of Georgia Highway 67, before 1:30 a.m. July 9. As GSP Trooper First Class 3 Jamey Holloway describes the accident, Payne was attempting to cross the highway from the side that Food World, Arby’s and other businesses are on to the Georgia Southern campus side and had made it to the southbound far-right traffic lane when he was hit.
Not only did the driver of the vehicle that hit Payne not stop, the next vehicle didn’t stop, according to the information Holloway has gathered. The driver of a third or fourth vehicle traveling in that direction was apparently the first to call 911 to report that someone on a scooter had crashed in the road.
The trooper phoned that driver after Statesboro police got her number. But she apparently was not an eyewitness to Payne’s being struck.
“She said she was behind two or three cars in the right lane, she saw them swerving over to the left lane, and when she got up to where they were at, she saw there was somebody laying in the road,” Holloway said.
He canvassed the area for video cameras, checking again with Arby’s the next morning. But the Arby’s video system picks up only the drive-thru area and parking lot, Food World doesn’t have cameras pointing that way, and a former bank branch nearby no longer operates, Holloway observed.
“There was no witnesses, no camera, nothing,” he said. “There wasn’t much debris in the road, and what debris there was wasn’t big enough to be able to tell what kind of vehicle it comes from.”
He observed there were no skid marks.
After learning Monday that Statesboro Police knew of no video camera coverage in the area, the Statesboro Herald double-checked with Georgia Southern. A spokesperson relayed an answer from GSU Police Chief Laura McCullough that the university has no camera coverage that reaches that far.
Holloway is asking for any witness who has not come forward to do so, for the driver who struck Payne to turn himself or herself in, or even for word from someone who notices new front-end damage on the vehicle of someone they know.
SPD appeal
The Statesboro Police Department also posted an appeal for neighborhood video or witness tips on its Facebook page Wednesday.
It states in part:
“If you live anywhere within the proximity of the accident and happen to own a ring camera, please check them. If you see any signs of a suspicious vehicle, we’re asking that you let us or Georgia State Patrol know.”
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Georgia State Patrol at (912) 688-6999 or the Statesboro Police Department at (912) 764-9911. Anonymous tips may be sent to tips@statesboroga.gov.
Payne had reportedly been with friends at the Cookout restaurant, but he left before the others. Some of his friends found him and, according to police, pulled him from the highway. He was transported by ambulance first to East Georgia Regional Medical Center and then to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, where he died later Saturday.