THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 9, 1995 TAG: 9505090245
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Had Vivian Caputo not wandered into a neighbor's yard, she and her daughter might have been standing where the flying car corkscrewed into the porch.
Had a stout white pine not stood in the yard, the car might have smashed through the porch and into the living room.
Had Ross Campbell and Dan Burns not been wearing their seat belts, they might have been creamed. And had Don Gerloff been short of incredibly lucky, he might have been, too.
If fortune smiled anywhere Sunday, it surely happened in the 8500 block of Granby St., where a spectacular accident claimed a van, three cars, two utility poles, a fence, a lawn, the pine tree and a brick-faced corner of the Caputos' porch - but caused not so much as a broken bone.
``It was close,'' said John Caputo, who had stepped onto the porch looking for Vivian and their 4-year-old daughter, Camille, moments before the wreck. ``I started thinking about it later, and I realized how close it was, and I felt like throwing up.''
The accident, which still had police shaking their heads Monday, began at 6:05 p.m. as Gerloff piloted his 1989 Oldsmobile sedan past Forest Lawn Cemetery. He suffered an apparent seizure. The Olds picked up speed.
Ray and Bonnie Inman of Wachapreague were cruising in Granby Street's right lane when Gerloff's car smacked into their 1993 Plymouth van, then blew past them on the shoulder.
``He was going so fast I couldn't even get his license plate number,'' Inman said Monday. ``I figured a police car had to be chasing him to make anybody go that fast.''
Inman watched the Oldsmobile swerve back onto the road, and his wife gasped that she could see a child up ahead, crossing Granby on a bicycle.
Between the Olds and the bike was Ross Campbell's 1986 Ford Escort. Gerloff's Olds sped north, drifting to the left, and slammed into the Escort's rear, snapping its back axle. The car, with Campbell and passenger Dan Burns inside, careened into the median, crashed into a utility pole and flipped.
``I was looking either down or out the window,'' Burns said, ``and the next second I was going, `What happened to us?' and there was a telephone pole in front of us, upside-down.''
Now Gerloff's car yawed to the right. It skidded down Granby sideways, passing a handful of young adults clustered in a front yard there, its tail clipping a 1987 Oldsmobile driven by Margaret Snowden of Norfolk. The impact sent Gerloff's car toward the curb.
John Caputo was in his garage, having just walked there from the front porch of his home at 8562 Granby. Vivian and Camille, who'd been puttering around out front, had just sauntered next door. Neighbor Pat Garris was showing the girl her property's resident ducks.
Gerloff's car clipped a telephone junction box and hit a thick wooden driveway marker. The marker became a launch pad.
``I heard it and turned around, and when I did the man was already upside down and airborne,'' Garris said.
Rolling as it flew, the Olds splintered a utility pole, then augered into the pine, snapping the tree's trunk - which was 9 inches across - at a point 6 feet off the ground. Then, its path diverted, Gerloff's car skidded upside down into the porch steps, shattering a brick wall there.
Campbell and Burns were hospitalized overnight, but police said their injuries were minor - just cuts and bruises. Gerloff remained hospitalized later Monday and could not be reached for comment.
The Caputos' house caught $6,000 worth of damage, and Gerloff's and Campbell's cars were totaled. Altogether, the wreck cost about $20,000.
All in all, not a stiff price.
``When I got to the scene, I didn't see how anyone could have walked away from those cars,'' said Norfolk police officer Mike Borkowski, who reconstructed the sequence of events. ``Every one of those people owe their lives to their seat belts.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff graphic
Area shown: What happened
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC HOUSE INJURIES by CNB