---

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

DATE: SATURDAY, January 30, 1993                   TAG: 9301300183
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

---

TRACTOR-TRAILER DRIVER KILLED IN FIERY ACCIDENT ON I-81

A Canadian truck driver was killed Friday morning when his tractor-trailer overturned and burned after going through a guardrail on Interstate 81 in Rockbridge County.

David Joseph Guitar, 48, of New Brunswick was trapped inside the truck's cab after the 3 a.m. accident, authorities said. He died at the scene.

State police said the truck was heading north when it ran off the right side of the road. Both of the truck's diesel fuel tanks ruptured.

Fairfield Fire Chief Steve Wilmer said burning fuel ran through a culvert under the highway, igniting grass in the median. Firefighters extinguished the blaze quickly, but crews worked most of the day to finish cleanup from the accident and fuel spill.

A crane had to be brought in after daylight to haul the truck out of the ditch. The work, which caused traffic congestion, still was going on when a second accident occurred shortly before noon.

In that accident, Buena Vista Fire Chief David Grow was injured when a van rear-ended his car. Grow was taken to Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington, then flown by helicopter to University of Virginia Hospital.

He was in stable condition Friday night, a hospital administrator reported.

Keywords:
FATALITY

---