THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 25, 1996 TAG: 9608260659
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 31 lines
A 19-year-old man died Saturday after being trapped more than an hour in the wreckage of the vehicle he had been driving, police said. Two other people were seriously hurt in the one-vehicle accident.
The driver, Gary D. Parsons of the 1400 block of Ski Lodge Road, died at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital shortly after being flown there by the Nightingale helicopter ambulance.
Police said Parsons was heading east on Indian River Road about 3:50 p.m. when, for unknown reasons, the 1987 Nissan Pathfinder he was driving ran off the road just west of West Neck Road. The vehicle first went off the right side of the road and then crossed back onto the highway, went across both lanes and then back off the road on the left side, where it ran into a stand of trees.
One victim was freed shortly after rescue crews arrived, but it took more than an hour to extricate Parsons and another half-hour to free the third passenger, police said.
The other two victims were taken to the Trauma Center at Virginia Beach General Hospital in serious condition. They were identified as Radford S. Bailes, 17, also of the 1400 block of Ski Lodge Road, and Jennifer Keeley, 17, of the 1400 block of Powder Ridge Court.
Police said alcohol was not a factor in the accident but that no one in the vehicle had been wearing a seat belt.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC INJURIES FATALITY by CNB