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

DATE: FRIDAY, June 4, 1993                   TAG: 9306040311
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STEPHEN N. FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PETERS CREEK CRASH INJURES 3

As they placed him into an ambulance Thursday night, Roanoke County rescue personnel were trying to resuscitate the victim of a car crash on Peters Creek Road that witnesses said may have began with two cars racing each other.

Jerry Thompson, Hollins Fire Department chief, said a red car was speeding north when it smashed into the rear of a car that was pulling onto the road near the intersection of Barrens Road just before 9 p.m.

A mother and son were in the car that was rear-ended, he said. "They were both buckled up."

The mother did not appear seriously injured, but Thompson expressed worry about the boy, to whom rescue-squad members applied resuscitation for several minutes as he lay on the median.

The rear end of their car was crushed almost completely up to the back of the front seats.

Thompson said the driver of the red car, which was sitting backwards in the road about 30 yards away, suffered a cut to the neck, but the injury did not appear life-threatening.

The names of the victims and their specific injuries were not available.

Jack Riggs of Roanoke, who was driving the other way when the accident happened, said the crash "knocked the car into the air." It came down on its front bumper and settled in the median, he said.

He said he helped the woman out of the car and tried to stop traffic until authorities arrived.

"All [the mother] could say is that she looked both ways," he said. "She didn't even see him."

Cathy Ayers of Lexington said she had been heading northbound moments before when the red car passed her moving fast and weaved across the road as if racing with another, blue, sports car.

by CNB