THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602180039
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HERTFORD LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
Four men from the Camp Lejeune Marine Base area escaped serious injury Friday night when their ambulance hit an icy patch and overturned just south of here.
``Three of them had very, very minor injuries,'' said North Carolina Highway Patrolman K.R. Briggs on Saturday.
The ambulance's driver, a 19-year-old Marine named Phongsavanh Khounviseth, was not hurt.
The Navy ambulance was en route from Camp Lejeune to Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Va., when it veered onto the right shoulder of U.S. 17 North and hit ice. The vehicle, traveling 50 to 55 mph, skidded into a ditch and overturned, Briggs said.
A winter storm, which covered roads with snow and sleet, was bearing down on northeastern North Carolina when the accident occurred around 6:40 p.m. Friday near the Chowan County line.
The driver, along with passenger Nathan Baer, 22, of Camp Lejeune, and paramedic William Browne, 36, of Jacksonville, were transporting Emerson Bryce of Hubert, N.C.
Bryce, 51, was suffering from ``general health problems,'' Briggs said.
Perquimans County emergency medical service transported the four men to Chowan Hospital, where the most serious injury was ``a bump on the head,'' the state trooper said.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC by CNB