Driver charged in Columbus crash that killed 20-year-old motorcyclist
Police investigating an Oct. 2 collision that killed a 20-year-old motorcyclist on Moon Road have charged a Columbus man with misdemeanor homicide by vehicle.
Edward Charles Lunsford was booked into the Muscogee County Jail on Thursday after police arrested him at the Columbus Public Safety Center, charging him also with running a stop sign.
Lunsford, 64, was expected to be released on bond Friday, authorities said.
He’s charged in the death of Noah West, an Apache Drive resident police said was riding a black 2004 Kawasaki motorcycle north on Moon Road toward Canady Street when Lunsford pulled out in front of him.
Lunsford, who lives on Canady Street, was driving a white 2015 Ford Transit van when he pulled up to the stop sign at Moon Road around 9 p.m., police said. According to police reports, he stopped and looked both ways, seeing only a southbound vehicle that passed by before Lunsford again checked both directions and pulled out.
He said he heard a “loud screaming noise” that police assume was the revving engine of West’s motorcycle, and then saw the bike coming from his left. He told officers he tried to accelerate to avoid the collision, but West’s Kawasaki crashed into his driver’s side door, ejecting the rider.
West was dead at the scene, authorities said. Lunsford and a 49-year-old woman in his front passenger’s seat were treated for injuries at the hospital.
Accused of unintentionally causing West’s death by committing a stop sign violation, Lunsford was charged with second-degree homicide by vehicle, a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.