A 20-year-old Centralia man died early Tuesday morning after taking a curve too fast in his car on a Boone County road, sliding off and rolling the vehicle seven or eight times, the Boone County Sheriff’s Department said.
Sgt. Scott Ewing, supervisor of the department’s traffic unit, estimated that Travis Wayne Beamer was driving between 75 and 100 mph when the accident occurred and said Beamer was not wearing a seat belt.
Ewing said Beamer was driving south on Jay Jay Road, just south of Centralia, when his car left the west side of the road and rolled, coming to rest across both lanes of the road. He was ejected from the car and landed in a ditch.
Ewing said the accident occurred between 12:30 and 4:54 a.m. Tuesday. The road is not heavily traveled during the late night and early morning, so the accident wasn’t discovered until a motorist notified the department at 4:54 a.m.
“There was a watch at the scene that stopped at 12:45 (a.m.), and the last call on (Beamer’s) cell phone was at 12:30 a.m.,” Ewing said.
Beamer was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ewing said the Sheriff’s Department has patrolled the area where Tuesday’s accident occurred after receiving several speed complaints from residents along Jay Jay Road. He said several other accidents have occurred on the curvy road.