Blackwater Road accident victim is Laurel County’s 13th fatality of the year

A single vehicular crash that transpired on Blackwater Road (Kentucky Route 1803) in Laurel County, Kentucky on Thursday, December 15 at around 7 a.m. resulted in the death of 66-year-old Marydell Road in London resident Donnie Ray Smith, who was considered the county’s 13th fatality of the year.

Investigators have suggested that the man had been traveling east on Blackwater and left the road briefly while on a curve, overcorrecting and going into the opposite ditch, rolling several times. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

A Barbourville woman who was killed on November 30 along Kentucky Route 229 during a single vehicular accident had been the last fatality for the year until Smith’s death. Other fatalities included a pedestrian getting struck by an oncoming vehicle, three that involved an all-terrain vehicle, and one that involved a motorcycle. The fatality count was nearly double that of the previous year.

Our most sincere condolences from Sampson Law Firm go out to the victim and his loved ones.