INDIANAPOLIS - Twenty-six-year-old Nicole King of Noblesville has been
identified as the driver who drove the wrong way on I-465 Sunday
morning. Joy Edwards died when King's car hit her van.
Edwards worked to keep kids and adults from smoking and those
who knew her say she was tireless. When it came to fighting smoking,
Edwards' colleagues say the Kokomo woman was virtually unstoppable.
"Joy was a bundle of energy. She always had a smile and she
always had an idea of what she was going to do next, an idea and a
project and just gusto to go for it. She would come to something that
we hosted, a training or workshop or something that was going on and
she would take it back and do, put it to action in Kokomo," said Karla
Sneegas, Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation.
Edwards was driving the van struck by King. Three of her
children and two of their friends were also in the van. The crash
injured all of them; four were admitted to Wishard Hospital. It was
just a little more than a year ago that Edwards appeared at a news
conference advocating higher cigarette taxes to urge people to quit
smoking.
"And if that's the motivating factor then I say let's help them quit," Edwards said at the time.
The crash that took Edwards' life has brought sadness to her colleagues.
"Well, our office is just devastated. We work so closely with
our local partners and like I said, Joy had been with us since 2001 and
it's just hard to imagine Indiana Tobacco Control without Joy," Sneegas
said.