03/23/2007

Associated Press

A former state lottery commissioner and past chairman of the state chamber of commerce faces charges including reckless driving after authorities said he fled the scene of a four-car wreck.

Buncombe County businessman Gordon Myers, 62, who was charged with impaired driving, reckless driving and hit and run, was listed in fair condition Friday at Mission Hospitals.

The State Highway Patrol blames alcohol and Myers's failure to slow down for Tuesday's chain reaction crash involving six people, including a 7- and a 12-year-old girl in a van hit by Myers' SUV.

Officials said about 15 minutes after Myers' SUV hit a van carrying the children, his vehicle ran off a road near his home. It hit a fence and a tree, and Myers was thrown out, investigators said.

Myers' attorney, Gene Ellison, said there's no evidence his client was intoxicated because the results of a blood test haven't come back.

Myers, a former Asheville city councilman, briefly served on the state lottery commission before stepping down because of a possible business conflict.

He has been chairman of the economic development recruiting agency AdvantageWest since it formed more than a decade ago.

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Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times, http://www.citizen-times.com