ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605060070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTOPHER RICKETT STAFF WRITER
A chain-reaction accident in Botetourt County left one person dead and three others injured Saturday afternoon when a tractor-trailer driver apparently didn't see traffic that had slowed for road construction, state police said.
Merritt Kirkpatrick, 62, of Mt. Vernon, Ill., was pronounced dead at the scene after his truck, which was carrying two semi-truck cabs, smashed into the back of another tractor-trailer on southbound Interstate 81 near Buchanan.
State Trooper Malcolm Austin said Kirkpatrick, who was traveling near the normal speed limit, was approaching vehicles that had stopped or slowed because of road paving about 12:30 p.m. and was sandwiched between the two cabs he was towing and the tractor-trailer ahead of him when the wreck occurred.
Austin said that collision caused the second tractor-trailer to rear-end a car in the left lane, which caused two more chain-reaction collisions. Five vehicles were involved in the accident.
Three people were taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Shirley Bond, 49, of Phoenixville, Pa., was treated and released. Two juveniles from Luray, one of whom was still hospitalized Saturday afternoon in stable condition, also were injured. The other juvenile was treated and released.
The driver of the second tractor-trailer was not injured.
Austin said traffic was backed up for nearly three hours while hazardous materials crews cleaned up fuel, oil and wreckage at the scene.
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB