Former head of Boys and Girls Club dies in holiday traffic accident

By Staff
from staff and wire reports
Sept. 3, 2003
Darrel L. Weir, the former executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Lauderdale County, was one of at least 10 people who died on Mississippi roads during the three-day Labor Day weekend.
Weir, 42, of Columbus, died Friday after he was thrown from his vehicle. Lowndes County officials said Weir was driving on a county road when he apparently lost control on a curve, rolled and struck a tree.
Weir was named head of the Boys and Girls Club in 2001 after serving in a similar position in Lowndes County since 1997. He left the job in January.
William McNeil, former interim director of the Boys and Girls Club who headed the club until Weir took over in 2001, remembered Weir as a good administrator.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol said that at least seven people died on state highways. At least three other people died in traffic-related accidents on city or county streets across the state.
The Highway Patrol does not include those deaths in its holiday traffic report.
None of the traffic fatalities occurred in Meridian or Lauderdale County. Last year, there was just one Labor Day weekend traffic fatality in the state; in 2001, there were six.
There were 177 accidents on roads patrolled by state troopers from Friday to Monday, Strain said. Nine accidents were alcohol-related.
During the period, troopers issued 5,918 citations and made 174 drunken driving arrests, Strain said.
The holiday period ran from 6 p.m. Friday until midnight Monday.