THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, August 19, 1994                TAG: 9408190656
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT                      LENGTH: Short :   35 lines

TWO INJURED IN THREE-CAR COLLISION, CLOSING ROUTE 10 IN ISLE OF WIGHT A SLOWLY MOVING TRACTOR TRIGGERS A REAR-END CRASH, TROOPER REPORTS.

A three-car accident sent two people to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital by helicopter and closed Route 10 for an hour Thursday afternoon.

State police spokeswoman Tammy Van Dame said the accident occurred at 1:45 p.m., when a 1994 Buick Roadmaster driven by Abel Whitaker, 79, of Baltimore struck the rear end of a 1988 Mercury.

A trooper reported that Whitaker did not realize that traffic had slowed for a farm tractor traveling about 20 miles per hour, Van Dame said.

When the Mercury was struck, it collided with a 1991 Lincoln that was driven by Linda Ashe Hamel, 45, of Spring Grove.

The crash occurred one-fifth of a mile east of Route 621.

Whitaker and the Mercury's driver, Pearl Benson Whitehead, 52, of Windsor were taken to the hospital via Nightingale helicopter for head, neck and leg injuries.

Hamel was taken by ambulance to Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News to be treated for minor neck pain.

While traffic was snarled, a 2-year-old child with a history of seizures stopped breathing because of the heat, Van Dame said, but she was treated on the scene by Isle of Wight paramedics.

Van Dame said charges are pending in connection with the accident.

KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC INJURIES by CNB