THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 3, 1995 TAG: 9511030514
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
The driver and two passengers were seriously injured Thursday when the new car they were in overturned on the beach road while traveling at a speed estimated by witnesses at about 100 miles an hour.
Officials said alcohol was involved in the one-car accident about 2 p.m.
Police said Christopher A. Porter, 36, of Nags Head was driving north on N.C. Route 12 when his burgundy Buick Turbo GS ran into a ``No Parking'' sign on the east side of the road near the Carolinian Hotel.
The car - with only 680 miles on the odometer - overturned and rolled a couple of times, skidding at least 150 feet along the road. The car crushed at least one other ``No Parking'' sign and ran over a wooden ``Gallery Row'' signpost before righting itself.
One female passenger was thrown from the vehicle, across both lanes of traffic, into a sandy shoulder on the west side of the road.
Police and firefighters pried the driver and another female passenger out of the crushed car. The windshield was shattered. The rear-view mirror came to rest atop the hood. The passenger side rear tire was torn from its rim and rolled about 50 feet from where the car stopped.
The passengers, Monica S. Nutt, 25, and Vivien Sawyer, 32, both of Blackman Street in Nags Head, were taken by helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. Both were still being treated at the emergency room early Thursday evening, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Porter was taken by ambulance to Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City, where his condition was unavailable Thursday night.
Police said no charges had been filed as of 5 p.m.
``Speed was the contributing factor,'' Nags Head Police Department Deputy Chief Wayne Byrum said. ``We also understand alcohol was involved.''
About five minutes after the accident, two half-full Busch beer cans were still in the street, inside green Styrofoam ``huggie'' holders. Another beer can was smashed beneath the driver's-side rear tire. A pair of black lace-up shoes that had been thrown from the car were lying nearby on the road.
Witnesses said the Buick had been going faster than 100 miles per hour over at least a four-mile stretch of the beach road Thursday afternoon.
One paramedic who looked into the vehicle after the wreck said the speedometer needle was pegged on the 120 mph mark. The speed limit on that two-lane blacktop is 35 miles per hour.
``I heard the car rolling and ran out to see what happened. The engine was still running, so I reached inside and shut it off so the whole thing wouldn't blow up,'' said Don Wade, a Nags Head resident who arrived at the accident site before most of the emergency vehicles.
``The girl inside said her neck was hurting real bad. They were all covered with blood. And some lady on the side of the road gave that other girl - who was thrown - a blanket.''
Nags Head Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Zorc said the driver and both passengers were ``lucky to be alive.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ANNA GARTRELL
The driver and two female passengers were seriously injured
Thursday when his burgundy Buick Turbo GS - with only 680 miles on
the odometer - overturned and rolled a couple of times, skidding at
least 150 feet on N.C. Route 12.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC INJURIES by CNB