Record Staff Report
WHITLEY CITY — Funeral services were held locally yesterday for a 5-year-old boy killed in a one-vehicle wreck on South U.S. 27 in Burnside late Wednesday night.
Burnside Police Officer Mike Hill found 25-year-old Michelle Black, of Burnside, crawling on the shoulder of U.S. 27 near Lost Lodge Road shortly after 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. When he stopped to help, he learned that she had just been involved in a wreck — and that three children were still inside the vehicle.
Black had been driving south on U.S. 27 in a Toyota 4Runner when she lost control of her vehicle, leaving the roadway on the west shoulder of the road. Black’s vehicle clipped a stop sign and went airborne approximately 20 feet before it landed in a ditch.
Burnside Police Chief Craig Whitaker said Officer Hill had passed through the area in the northbound lane shortly before the accident occur-red. Hill had just turned his vehicle around and was passing by in the southbound lane when he saw Black crawling toward the road.
“(Hill) said the dust was still in the air from the wreck,” Whitaker said.
Gabriel Alexander Black, 5, a passenger in the rear seat of the vehicle, was killed instantly during the collision, Pulaski County Deputy Coroner Anthony Gossett said. He was pronounced dead at 12:13 a.m. Thursday.
Michelle Black and Gabriel’s two sisters, who were passengers in the back seat of the vehicle — 3-year-old Cameron and 1-year-old Ryleigh — were treated at the scene of the wreck and transported to Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital for treatment of their injuries. Cameron was later taken to the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital. She had been released by Saturday afternoon.
The Commonwealth Journal reported that speed appeared to be a factor in the collision.
Gabriel Black’s body was taken to the State Medical Examiner’s office in Frankfort for an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death, Gossett said.
Gossett said Gabriel was wearing a seat belt, but was not in a booster seat. Chief Whitaker said the other children were “buckled or in proper restraints.”
Gabriel was a kindergarten student at Burnside Elementary. Counselors were on hand at the school Friday, the students’ first day in classes following the Wednesday wreck.
The Black family has several relatives locally, where funeral services for Gabriel were held yesterday at the McCreary County Funeral Home in Whitley City.
Gabriel was laid to rest in the Grave Hill Cemetery in Pulaski County.
Gabriel is survived by his parents, Brandon and Michelle Black of Burnside; sisters Cameron Black and Ryleigh Black both of Burnside; grandparents Charles and Debra Cole and Brenda Black all of Pine Knot; and David Black of Stearns; great grandfathers Stanley Black of Parkers Lake; and Hollis Slaven of Muncie, Indiana, among other relatives and friends.
