Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 22, 1993 TAG: 9306220296
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Her fiance's grandmother and the 29-year-old man who was driving the van that struck their car also died.
Susan Ramona Simmons, 26, of Roanoke, died at about 9 p.m. Sunday at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, about 75 minutes after her car was struck on Virginia 603 near Interstate 81's Ironto exit.
The wreck also killed the driver of the van, Daniel W. Crook, 29, of Christiansburg, and Ruth Welcher Long, 82, of Elliston, who was riding in the back seat of Simmons' car. Simmons was engaged to Long's grandson.
Eunice Sink, 84, of Meadowbrook Nursing Home in Shawsville, another passenger in the car, was taken to Lewis-Gale Hospital in Salem for treatment. She was in guarded condition in the intensive care unit Monday evening, a nursing supervisor said.
Simmons was airlifted to Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where she died. Long and Crook were pronounced dead at the scene.
Crook's two children, a son, 6, and daughter, 9, were not seriously injured, state police said.
Trooper Steve Fijalkowski said the accident happened about 7:45 p.m. when the van ran off Virginia 603, hit a guardrail and then swerved back into the road, hitting Simmons' car in the driver's door.
The wreck was the second fatal accident in the New River Valley over the weekend, following a two-car wreck in Floyd County on Saturday that claimed the lives of a teen-age girl and a 48-year-old federal employee.
by CNB