Police report: Excessive speed a factor in deadly UGA crash, no word yet on possible impairment

A telephone pole struck by the vehicle carrying four members of UGA's football program

By Joe Johnson

Excessive speed was factor in the weekend vehicle crash that killed a University of Georgia football player and a member of UGA football program's staff, according to an Athens-Clarke County police accident report.

Additionally, the report indicates that Bulldogs offensive lineman Devin Willock was not wearing a seatbelt when he was thrown from the wrecked vehicle.

Devin Willock

Chandler LeCroy

The report does not say whether driver impairment played a role in the crash, but a sample of 24-year-old Chandler LeCroy's blood was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Crime Lab for toxicology testing.

ACCPD spokesman Lt. Shaun Barnett saId results of the testing may not be known for a few months, due to the “turnaround” of cases at the crime lab.

The fatal crash occurred at the end of a day of celebration in Athens on Saturday, beginning with a parade to mark the Bulldogs’ second consecutive college football national title.

According to the police accident report, at about 2:45 a.m. Sunday, LeCroy, a recruitment analyst for UGA’s football program, was driving a Ford Expedition SUV south on Barnett Shoals Road near Stroud Road when she failed to negotiate a curve, causing the vehicle to leave the roadway, then strike two utility poles and a tree, causing it to rotate, hit another tree, and rotate again before coming to rest against a building at Shoal Creek apartments.

Willock, identified as a passenger in the rear driver’s side of the vehicle, was ejected and died at the scene, according to the report, which noted that the football player had not been wearing a seatbelt.

LeCroy was trapped in the driver’s seat and was extricated from the vehicle, then transported to the hospital where she was pronounced deceased, according to the report.

The passenger in the front passenger seat, identified as Warren McClendon Jr., a UGA offensive lineman, received a cut in the middle of his head and the other backseat passenger, recruitment analyst Victoria Bowles, sustained multiple injuries.

McClendon was treated and released, and Bowles was said to be in stable condition.