Carolina's sideline reporter killed last night

Changing a tire on his way from his parent's house in Gboro. 27 years old - also did the play by play for the Heels baseball and women's basketball. Woody could barely talk at the beginning of the broadcast today.

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3. that is why I have AAA.

 

UNC sideline reporter killed in hit-and-run
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) – Stephen Gates, the sideline reporter for North Carolina football the past five seasons, was killed early Saturday after being struck by a car while changing a flat tire. He was 27.
Gates was returning from Greensboro after visiting his parents and was killed near the Interstate 40-85 split, UNC officials said. A State Highway Patrol accident report said he was hit about 2:30 a.m. when another eastbound vehicle hit Gates’ car and then Gates.
The trooper investigating the death was unavailable to provide further details Saturday. It is unclear if the driver of the hit-and-run vehicle was found, a dispatcher at the Highway Patrol’s Greensboro post said.
Gates was also the play-by-play voice for North Carolina’s baseball and women’s basketball programs.
There was a moment of silence for Gates, who worked for the Tar Heel Sports Network, before the start of the Virginia-North Carolina game.

 

That really sucks.

 

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From the Greensboro News and Record...

Sports announcer killed in hit-and-run on I-40

 

3, had a friend killed that way when he was doing a traffic stop. Makes you sit back and think you never really know when you are gonna go.

 

Update... the driver has been arrested.

Raleigh man arrested in highway death of sports announcer

RALEIGH (AP) -- Authorities have charged a Raleigh man in a hit-and-run crash that killed a Durham radio reporter early Saturday on Interstate 40 south of Hillsborough, according to court records.

Rabah Samara, 26, was charged Monday by the State Highway Patrol with felony hit and run and failing to stop with personal injury, according to arrest records filed Monday night with the Wake Magistrate's Office.

Samara is accused of driving a Cadillac Escalade away from the scene of the crash that killed Stephen Gates, the Tar Heel Sports Network's football sideline reporter, records show.

Gates, 27, was returning from visiting family in Greensboro to work a game when he died. He had pulled over to fix a flat tire about 2:25 a.m. Saturday near the split for I-85 and I-40 when an Escalade hit Gates' car and then him, according to a state Highway Patrol accident report.

Witnesses took down the Escalade's tag number. Raleigh police spotted the vehicle nearly seven hours after the crash being driven by Samara. He was charged Saturday with driving while impaired.

Authorities do not think Samara was driving when the crash occurred, but that he took over after the vehicle stopped at the scene briefly before leaving, Orange County District Attorney Carl Fox said Monday night.

Interviews with witnesses indicate that Emily Caveness, 20, of Wilkesboro, was behind the wheel of the Cadillac SUV when it hit Gates, Fox said Monday. But Caveness had not been charged Monday night. "This isn't the end of it," Fox said.

Samara was arrested on the latest charges about 4:30 p.m. Monday, court records show. He posted a $3,000 bond at the Wake County jail Monday night and was awaiting release, a Wake magistrate said.

Samara said previously in an interview that he and the three others in the SUV would have stopped immediately if they had known the vehicle struck a person. He said he was not driving at the time of the crash but would not say who was.

A visitation for Gates is scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Hanes Lineberry Funeral Home in Greensboro. A second visitation begins at 5 p.m. Wednesday at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, also in Greensboro. The funeral Mass follows at 7 p.m.