Sheriff: medical issues likely cause of fatal Monday crash

Published 5:45 pm Tuesday, October 16, 2018

WAYNESBURG – A Eubank man was found dead after a single-vehicle crash in Lincoln County early Monday morning. 

Sheriff Curt Folger identified the driver as 63-year-old Richard Adkins. Folger said Adkins was pronounced dead at the scene by Lincoln County Coroner Farris Marcum. 

It was about 6:30 a.m. Monday morning when deputies responded to  the crash on Ky. 328 East involving a pickup truck. 

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Folger said medical issues were likely the cause of the crash. 

“From all indication, it’s going to be a medical issue,” Folger said Tuesday. “I spoke with his relatives and they told me that he had had some medical issues (in) the last few days.”

Folger said he suspects Adkins likely had a heart attack prior to the wreck. 

“He went probably an eighth of a mile on the side of the shoulder, until he hit a big ditch and went down in that ditch and overturned, and landed on its top,” he said. 

There was no visible attempt to leave the shoulder, Folger said, which is why officials suspect a medical emergency is to blame. 

“Most people, whenever they drop off the shoulder, their first instinct is to pull it and overcorrect,” he said.