ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 21, 1996 TAG: 9612230077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Virginia Supreme Court has ordered a new trial over whether a single driver can be held responsible for the death of a woman in a 44-vehicle pileup on fog-shrouded Afton Mountain.
Robert Harrah brought a lawsuit against the driver of a cable construction truck, James E. Washington Jr., for causing the wrongful death of Harrah's wife, Peggy, in the April 1992 pileup.
A jury ruled in August 1994 that Washington was not at fault in the woman's death. Harrah appealed the verdict to the state Supreme Court, which cited erroneous jury instructions in a ruling earlier this month.
The case was heard in Louisa County, where Washington lives about an hour's drive east of Afton Mountain. Harrah, meantime, also has a wrongful death suit pending in Augusta County, where the accident occurred.
In the Augusta case, Harrah sought to fix primary blame for the crash on Kelly Walker, driver of a Waynesboro First Aid truck that was stopped partly in the road ahead of Washington's vehicle.
The Augusta case has been on hold pending the outcome of the Louisa case, court officials said.
According to court documents, Peggy Harrah was driving a 1989 Cadillac eastbound when she hit a car in front of her. Her mother-in-law, who was in the front passenger seat, testified that the impact was light.
Following the collision, both women were helping the Harrahs' two children out of the back seat and trying to move to a grass median when a pickup truck driven by Paul W. Burch of Richmond struck the Cadillac, court papers say.
The impact threw Harrah, 43, through the air and onto a trailer being pulled by Washington. She died shortly afterward.
Walker had driven the first aid truck up the mountain to get to several wrecks that occurred in the westbound lanes before the wrecks started on the eastbound side. A state trooper testified that the first aid truck's emergency lights were not flashing.
The Afton Mountain crossing along Interstate 64 often is beset by dense fog. Earlier this year, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced a $5.3 million project to install new lights and sensors along the highway.
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