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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 20, 1993                   TAG: 9305200311
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MASSAPONAX                                LENGTH: Short

STATE TO STUDY SITE WHERE 3 DIED ON U.S. 1

The state Department of Transportation is conducting a safety study of the site where three people were killed Sunday on U.S. 1 near a busy flea market.

Don Askew, the department's district maintenance engineer, said he and several traffic engineers have examined the site, at the entrance to Manor Mart about 10 miles south of Fredericksburg.

Nine family members in two cars had stopped in the northbound lane of U.S. 1 to turn left into Manor Mart when a pickup truck struck the cars from behind, pushing one into the path of a southbound tractor-trailer. Three people in that car died and two were seriously injured.

Engineers are studying aerial photographs of the area and they will perform a speed study, Askew said.

He said the department studied the same area after a July 14, 1991, two-car collision in which one person was killed and three people injured.

Jeannie Dommisse and her husband, Nick, purchased the property that is now Manor Mart in 1983 and later started the flea market. The market attracts more than 40 vendors and thousands of shoppers each weekend.

"I hope that we can get a traffic light or some type of traffic control out here," she said. "We are so distressed about the accident Sunday. To me, the business isn't fun anymore."

by CNB