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

DATE: SATURDAY, October 29, 1994                   TAG: 9410310045
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CRASH INJURES JEWELRY-STORE CHAIN OWNER

The owner of Fink's Jewelers was in critical condition Friday evening at Lynchburg General Hospital after a car he was driving collided head-on with a tractor-trailer, state police said.

Alvin Fink, 69, was injured about 2:30 p.m. Thursday on U.S. 29 near Madison Heights, according to state Trooper C.C. Worsham.

Worsham said that Fink, who was traveling alone, apparently became ill and may have blacked out as his car drifted into oncoming traffic. Fink's car glanced off one car in the opposite lane before hitting the approaching tractor-trailer.

Fink, chairman and chief executive officer of the nine-store jewelry company based in Roanoke, was wearing a seat belt, and the impact activated both air bags. "That surely saved his life," Worsham said.

Fink suffered internal injuries and cuts to his face. He was being treated in the hospital's surgical intensive-care unit Friday afternoon.

No one else was injured in the accident, although a hazardous-waste unit had to be called after nearly 300 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from the tractor-trailer.

by CNB