Pedestrian in Chesapeake road struck by pickup

CHESAPEAKE

Hours before a pickup struck Negal White in the road Tuesday morning in Deep Creek, he was released from the city jail, where he had nabbed a meal and a nap.

It was his second stay in the jail in less than a week. Thursday and then again on Monday, he was booked for public drunkenness and released on his own recognizance, records show.

Early Tuesday, the 51-year-old was lying in the 900 block of North George Washington Hwy. when a Ford F-150 plowed into him. Police want to determine whether White was dead before he was struck. No one has been charged.

White was the third pedestrian fatality in the city in less than a month - a total that matches all of 2011.

Intoxication appears to be the factor in at least two of the three deaths, said Chesapeake police Lt. Johnny Day. He noted that though toxicology results are pending on all three victims, witness statements and past behavior point to that conclusion.

Day said he is reminding patrol officers of the laws regarding pedestrians so they can watch for unsafe behavior.

"Right now, that's how we're trying to address it," he said.

According to a police news release, the pickup truck's driver was going south at 4 a.m. Tuesday near Townhouse Lane when he saw White lying in the road. The driver tried to avoid White and called 911 after the crash. White was pronounced dead at the scene.

White, whose last known address was in Portsmouth, had convictions in Chesapeake and Portsmouth for cocaine possession and larceny, according to online court records.

Veronica Gonzalez, 757-222-5208, veronica.gonzalez@pilotonline.com