
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991                   TAG: 9104040453
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TROOPER SAYS U.S. 460 VICTIM MIGHT HAVE LIVED

A traffic fatality Wednesday morning in Bedford County provided a classic example of the need for seat belts, state Trooper George Tsoleas said.

"I think most of the injuries the victim sustained came because he was ejected from the vehicle," Tsoleas said.

Tsoleas said James F. Bostic, 63, had just left the Robin Crest Mobile Home Park in Thaxton about 10:25 a.m. when he made an incorrect left turn heading west in the eastbound lane of U.S. 460.

A short distance away, Bostic crashed head-on into a van driven by Franklin West, 48, of Madison Heights, in the right-hand lane. Both vehicles were extensively damaged.

Bostic, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from his spinning pickup truck and landed about 15 feet away in the left-hand lane.

West, who was wearing a seat belt, was uninjured, although his van careened into the median. A passenger in front seat of the van sustained minor injuries. He, too, was wearing a seat belt.

Two other men in the back seat of West's van had minor injuries.

Bostic, who suffered head injuries, was taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital by the Life-Guard 10 helicopter and died at 2:05 p.m.

"I've personally never worked a fatal accident where the victim was wearing a seat belt," Tsoleas said.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB