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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 18, 1995                   TAG: 9502200015
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CAR CRASHES INTO CULVERT; WOMAN DIES

A Roanoke woman was killed Friday night not far from her father's home in Roanoke County when her compact car ran off the road into a creek and slammed into a stone culvert.

Annie Marie Lephew, 25, of Roanoke had just left her father's home on Cove Hollow Road near the Montgomery County line about 10 p.m. when the accident occurred, said Officer W.D. Byrd of the Roanoke County Police Department.

A male passenger, whose name was not available, was flown to Roanoke Memorial Hospital. No information was available on his condition.

Byrd was at a loss to explain the accident.

"We don't know what could have caused it," he said.

Thick fog crept through the area, but the crash site was clear. Cove Hollow Road twists through the rural area, but Lephew and her passenger ran off the left side of the road on a dry, straight stretch. Byrd said police found no skid marks.

Lephew and her passenger, who Byrd thought was a relative, were headed north. Both victims had to be cut free from the car, which was wedged between the culvert and the creek bank.

Byrd said he didn't believe either victim was wearing a seat belt.

by CNB