2 Virginia Tech students hit by car, fellow student charged with DUI

WSLS News Staff and Richmond Times Dispatch
Published: September 8, 2008

Updated Monday September 8th

Wresch is out of jail on a $1,500 unsecured bond.

Mugshot added

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Updated Sunday, September 7th, 11:50 p.m.

By Richmond Times Dispatch

A Virginia Tech student was charged with driving under the influence after he ran off the road in Blacksburg and hit two other Tech students who were walking on a sidewalk, police said.

Ryan William Wresch, 20, also was charged with possession of marijuana after the wreck early Saturday. His blood-alcohol content was 0.16 percent, twice the legal limit, according to Blacksburg police Capt. Kenneth Gay.

Amanda R. Tyus, a 21-year-old Tech senior from Chester, and Kellsye V. Pitsenbarger of Churchville, also 21, were recovering in separate hospitals yesterday. Neither remembers being hit by the car, their parents said. Tyus, a graduate of Thomas Dale High School, suffered head trauma and broke her right leg in two places under her knee and suffered fractures to her jaw and pelvic area, said her father, Joe Tyus.

Tyus and his wife, Billie, were with their daughter yesterday at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke. She had undergone surgery on her leg, her father said, adding that she recognized and spoke to her parents.“I think she’s going to be OK,“ Joe Tyus said. “It’s just going to be kind of a slow progress.“

The wreck happened about 1:40 a.m. in the 1000 block of Progress Street NW, in a residential area near downtown Blacksburg.

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Original story 6:22 a.m., Saturday September 6th

Blacksburg Police say two young women are seriously hurt, after a DUI driver hit them early in the morning Saturday.

Officers tell us around 1:40 a.m., a 2001 Honda Civic was speeding east on Progress Street.  The car ran off the right side of the road, onto the sidewalk, then hit 21-year-old Kellsye Pitsenbarger and 21-year-old Amanda Tyus

Investigators say the impact knocked Pitsenbarger into the road, and threw Tyus onto the hood then windshield of the car.

Police tell us Tyus remained on the windshield of the car, as the car drove through the front yard of a home on Progress Street, crashed through a chain-link fence, and smashed into a tree in the yard of another home.

Blacksburg Rescue Squad crews took both Pitsenbarger and Tyus to Montgomery Regional Hospital.  Tyus then had to be taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital, after suffering a more serious head injury than Pitsenbarger.

Officers arrested 20-year-old Ryan Wresch, and charged Wresch with DUI and possession of marijuana.

Police shut down Progress Street from Winston Avenue to Watson Avenue for about five hours to investigate the crash.