Man who died in wreck was on probation for manslaughter

Published 12:03 pm Wednesday, June 17, 2015

The 33-year-old Greenville man who died in a River Falls crash last night had previously served time for manslaughter, court officials in Butler County confirmed.

Daniel Ray Soloman died Tuesday night in a horrific head-on collision at the intersection of Sunnyside Street and Point A Road in River Falls. The accident seriously injured both his passenger, and the driver of the second vehicle, Whitney Lauryn Wright, 23, of Andalusia. Ms. Wright is a kindergarten teacher at Red Level Elementary School.

Solomon was charged with manslaughter in 2012 in a freak ATV accident in which a 9-year-old died.

According to Greenville Advocate archives, Soloman, then 30, was driving an ATV with a 9-year-old child, his stepdaughter, when he drove off a dirt embankment on Wildwood Road near Greenville.

Soloman was arrested at the time of the accident, and a Butler County grand jury charged him with manslaughter in 2014. Soloman accepted a plea deal on June 5, 2014, in which he was sentenced to 15 years, but put on five years of supervised probation with credit for the 30 months already served, according to Butler County DA Charlotte Tesmer.

Covington County Coroner Norman Hobson pronounced Soloman dead at the scene Tuesday night. Soloman was not wearing a seatbelt. Law enforcement sources at the scene said Soloman had failed to stop at a roadblock in River Falls.

Both Soloman’s passenger and the driver of the second vehicle were airlifted from the scene Tuesday night.

First responders worked the scene until the early morning hours Wednesday.

According to the River Falls Fire Department, when they arrived on scene they requested Life Flight and extrication was initiated by the department.

Gantt Area Fire Rescue helped set up a landing zone for Life Flight and Andalusia Fire Department was called to help with a “lengthy extrication.”

River Falls PD, River Falls Fire, Gantt Fire and Rescue, Red Level Police, Advanced EMS, Andalusia Police, the Sheriff’s Office and Alabama State Troopers all responded to the scene.

The Star-News will update as more details become available from ALEA.