ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: FRIDAY, December 23, 1994                   TAG: 9412240047
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

RUSH-HOUR CRASH CLOSES FRANKLIN ROAD

A woman drove off Franklin Road and hit a telephone pole Thursday evening, cracking a natural gas line and detouring rush-hour traffic from the four-lane thoroughfare.

The woman, whose name was not available Thursday night, was alone in the car, heading south, when she apparently took her eyes off the road and veered into a telephone pole in front of the Advance Auto store near Wonju Street, according to Roanoke police Sgt. J.R. Ratcliff. The car sheared off the pole and flipped over into the road.

No specific information on the woman's injuries was available.

Meanwhile, traffic on Franklin Road was closed from Wonju Street to the Advance Auto store until around 8 p.m., while workers replaced the telephone pole and repaired a gas leak.

A spokesman for Roanoke Gas Co. said that when the telephone pole shifted from the blow, it struck an underground gas line running next to it, cracking a joint where the main line branched off to the offices of Roanoke Neurological Associates. No other customers lost gas service.

Workers had the break fixed by about 7:30 p.m., the spokesman said. 


 by CNB