Driver of car in fatal crash may face charges

Monday, Aug. 2, 1999 | 10:35 a.m.

The driver of a car that police say caused an accident that killed three members of an area family Saturday probably will face manslaughter charges, North Las Vegas Police Officer Phil Hicks said this morning.

Hicks said initial reports that the accident occurred when two vehicles were drag racing were incorrect. Police are not searching for anyone else who may have been involved in the accident.

"It was just kids driving stupid, clowning around, " he said.

A total of eight people in three cars were involved in the wreck, east of the Texas Station hotel-casino.

The three people who were killed, including a toddler and her parents, were traveling east on Lake Mead Boulevard in a white 1994 Chevrolet when the driver of a blue 1984 Mercury traveling west at a high rate of speed lost control of his vehicle near Rancho Drive.

The three victims were identified by the Clark County coroner as Darrell Robert Wharton, 39, Brenda Lee Wharton, 38, and Autumn Lee Wharton, 3.

Hicks said three people in the blue car were taken to University Medical Center, where one is listed in stable condition and two are critical.

He declined to release their identities or the identities of two other motorists, who were in a silver Suzuki that ran into the rear of the Mercury after the initial collision.

Hicks said the two victims who were in the Suzuki are in stable condition.

Hicks said the Mercury was the third car a in line of vehicles in the 3300 block of Lake Mead Boulevard when the accident took place. He said the driver may have been following or chasing the other two vehicles.

"According to witnesses, he was swerving side-to-side, slaloming, clowning around when he lost control," he said.

The Chevrolet ran into the side of the oncoming Mercury and was knocked into a cinder block wall.

The family died at the scene.