THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 19, 1995 TAG: 9506170053
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
HAVE YOU NOTICED? Anchorman Les Smith is delivering the news on WAVY these days with two fingers of his right hand taped to a splint.
If it weren't for that tidy bit of bandaging, Channel 10's viewers would see nothing to suggest that Smith was in a traffic accident on May 24 that left him injured and gave his 1-year-old daughter the ride of her young life.
WAVY's cameras do not pick up Smith's cuts and bruises or carry his back pain over the airwaves.
Smith and his daughter, Rachel, were strapped in their seats in his 1995 GMC pickup when it collided with a fire truck weighing approximately 60,000 pounds at the intersection of Battlefield Boulevard and Volvo Parkway in Chesapeake. Upon impact - it was two impacts, really - the driver's side airbag in Smith's truck inflated. It kept Smith from being thrown against the steering column and windshield.
Rachel suffered no injury, said Smith.
The fire department in Chesapeake says none of its people was hurt when Smith's vehicle collided with what firefighters in that city call a ``tower'' truck. It's the largest piece of equipment used to fight fires by the crew at Station No. 4.
Tower Truck No. 4 - it's summoned when firefighters are working in high places - has been sent to Wisconsin for repairs. After colliding with Tower Truck No. 4, Smith took another hit when he bounced into the path of oncoming traffic.
He was hospitalized with severed tendons in two fingers of his right hand. Discussing the accident after he returned to the WAVY anchor desk last week, Smith said, ``If it were not for the airbag and seat belts, I probably wouldn't be talking to you today.''
How ironic.
Reporter and anchorman Smith, who has told Channel 10's viewers about countless accidents on the highways of Hampton Roads - and passed along the word from police to buckle up - found himself living the experience.
Smith was running a simple errand - taking his daughter to a day-care center.
He wasn't driving very fast.
The last thing he expected on that Wednesday was to be in an accident that demolished his truck and put him in an ambulance with lights flashing and sirens wailing.
When the airbag inflated, he did not hear it pop, and does not remember how it felt to meet the cushion of air face-first. ``All I recall is a crunching, crashing sound,'' he said.
Otherwise, the accident is a blur.
Smith, 34, and his colleagues in the Channel 10 news department were involved in the May ratings sweeps when the accident took him off the job. When popular Terry Zahn left WAVY for WVEC, the station's owners didn't miss a beat in calling in local boy Smith to replace Zahn as co-anchor at 6 and 11 p.m.
With Zahn departed, the NBC affiliate's ratings at 6 and 11 did not fall, as some in the business expected. Just the opposite happened.
According to the latest Nielsens, WAVY is No. 1 at 11 p.m and pushing front-runner WVEC at 6. And the team of Smith, co-anchor Alveta Ewell, weather reporter Don Slater and sports guy Bruce Rader scores big with women 25 to 54, who are most coveted by advertisers.
Smith, who has been with WAVY for 10 years, takes no bows. ``It's a total team effort,'' he said.
There is no flash or dash to the man.
``A rock,'' a co-worker calls him.
While Smith recovers from the injuries sustained in the bang-bang collision in Chesapeake, he works only the early shift. Soon, Smith will be back at the anchor desk full time.
He still has nightmares about it, Smith admitted the other day.
But so far, Smith has not told his viewers about how the airbag and the belts in his truck saved him and Rachel from serious injury.
It's a hell of a story. Tell it on the air, Les. by CNB