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

DATE: SUNDAY, July 9, 1995                   TAG: 9507100112
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CRASH KILLS 4 MEMBERS OF MD. FAMILY

Early Saturday, a tractor-trailer plowed into the family's three-vehicle convoy as it traveled south on Interstate 85 in Salisbury, N.C., authorities said. Four members of the family were killed in a wreck that snarled traffic for more than five hours.

A Virginia truck driver, Glenn R. Pointer, 40, has been charged with four counts of misdemeanor death by vehicle in the wreck.

Killed were Janet Louise Hamm, 34, of Suitland, Md.; her son, Patrick Williams, 10; her sister, Jacqueline Elizabeth Hamm, 32, of Bladensburg, Md.; and Jonathan Richardson, 4, of Columbia, Md.

Eleven other people were injured in the five-vehicle accident, which happened just before 7 a.m., said Sgt. Jack Edwards of the state Highway Patrol.

Several generations of the family - cousins, sisters and their children - were traveling south in two cars and a flatbed truck.

A 1988 tractor-trailer driven by Pointer hit one car from behind, then the tractor-trailer struck the other car, which in turn was pushed under the flatbed truck, Edwards said. Four of the five passengers in the first car died. A 10-year-old boy, Steven Foster, 10, of Washington, D.C., survived. He was flown to Charlotte's Carolinas Medical Center, where he was listed in serious condition.

Edwards said the accident ``was probably like an explosion, it happened so fast.''

Pointer, a driver for Virginia Highway Express, had reportedly stopped a few minutes before the wreck for a cup of coffee, Edwards said. ``He went to put the cup down [as he was driving], looked away for a moment, looked up and was unable to slow down,'' Edwards said.

Pointer was speeding, Edwards said. The family was traveling at less than the speed limit, which is 65 mph, he said.

Deep, muddy gashes cut through the I-85 median showed where the family's flatbed truck had crossed, landing upside down in the northbound lane. Debris from the Maryland vehicles was scattered as far as 800 feet. A broken hair dryer lay near one pink slipper.

Pointer, who was treated and released from Rowan Memorial Hospital, was being held Saturday at the Rowan County Justice Center, the magistrate's office said.

Keywords:
FATALITY