ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702180047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FANCY GAP
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Between 65 and 70 vehicles were wrecked Friday and at least 11 people were injured in Virginia's worst chain-reaction crash since April 1992. The crash occurred on Interstate 77 atop foggy Fancy Gap Mountain.
No one was killed in the crash, which began about 12:30 p.m. seven miles north of the North Carolina border, and continued for about an hour. Wrecked cars and trucks in the southbound lane of the interstate brought traffic to a standstill. The accident scene grew by the minute as motorists blinded by the fog slammed into stopped vehicles from the rear, witnesses said.
The pileup began when five cars collided in the thick fog, state police Sgt. G.J. Miles said. Residue from snow that had blanketed the region Thursday made abrupt stops nearly impossible.
``There were cars and trucks banged up all over the place,'' David Smith said as wreckers from the towing company he owns continued removing damaged cars from the road at 5:30 p.m. ``Some are torn up pretty bad, and some were barely damaged and could drive away.''
Within an hour after the crashes, the fog lifted. But the two southbound lanes remained blocked for hours, forcing traffic into a small emergency lane or onto U.S. 52. The accident began at mile marker 7 on I-77, and the backup continued well beyond mile marker 10.
Eight people were treated for injuries at Northern Hospital of Surry County in Mount Airy, N.C., and three were taken to a Twin County Regional Hospital in Galax, officials at the hospitals said. Miles said most were released Friday evening.
Two similar crunches occurred in Virginia in April 1992, on I-77 and Interstate 64.
The April 2, 1992, crash was on the same highway as Friday's smash-up, although farther north in Wythe County near the Wythe-Carroll line. Fifteen cars, trucks and tractor-trailers tangled with one another on an icy bridge over the New River.
The second one occurred April 20, 1992, in both lanes of I-64 on Afton Mountain near Waynesboro, and left two people dead. As with Friday's pileup, fog was the culprit.
Last year, the Virginia Department of Transportation installed new lights and sensors along I-64's stretch of often-foggy highway. When asked in December by a Roanoke Times columnist why I-64 at Afton Mountain was getting fog lights and not I-77 over Fancy Gap, a VDOT spokesman gave this reply: "We are of the opinion that Afton Mountain has a unique situation unlike anywhere else in the state because of conditions that create fog."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Larry Chambers/Landmark. Truck traffic rolls by onby CNBInterstate 77 in Carroll County while stranded motorists check out
two tractor-trailers in the median. GRAPHIC: Map by staff. color.