THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220317
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 32 lines
The driver of a tractor-trailer truck was hospitalized Wednesday after he hit a wall at an Interstate 64 on-ramp and was thrown through the cab's windshield, state police said.
Donald Ward Jr., 34, of Chesapeake lost control of the truck after allegedly going through a red light at the intersection of Wesleyan Drive and Northampton Boulevard, said Tammy Van Dame, a state police spokeswoman.
Van Dame said the truck appeared to have been traveling at 70 mph when it went through the intersection about 8:30 p.m.
As the truck steered onto the I-64 on ramp a few hundred feet down Northampton, it went out of control and hit a piling that supports a section of interstate bridge.
The impact hurled Ward through the windshield, and he hit an overpass wall. The cab hit the same wall.
Ward was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in serious condition with severe head and neck injuries.
The Virginia Department of Transportation sent engineers to the scene to inspect damage to the piling and the wall.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC INJURIES by CNB