THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 17, 1997 TAG: 9701180343
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: DUNN, N.C. LENGTH: 38 lines
Two Hampton Roads men were killed and two others were injured Wednesday when the Chevrolet Suburban they were in was hit from behind by a tractor-trailer truck and burst into flames.
The four friends were heading to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for a golfing event, the North Carolina Highway Patrol said.
The accident involved four vehicles on Interstate 95 south of Dunn.
Trooper A.A. Haswell of the Highway Patrol said the Suburban, driven by Luther Thomas Vellines Jr., 47, of the 1000 block of Pleasant Ridge Drive in Chesapeake, pulled into the truck's path while trying to pass two state Transportation Department vehicles.
Haswell said the state vehicles were traveling about 10 mph in the left lane. The lead truck was spraying herbicides in the median. The second truck displayed a flasher with a pointing arrow directing traffic to merge.
Vellines was attempting to merge into the right lane and apparently pulled in front of the truck before it could slow.
The truck's cab hit the rear of Vellines' Suburban, which ignited, flipped over, slid across the median on its roof and came to rest in the northbound lanes, the Fayetteville Observer-Times reported.
Vellines, a sales representative with Benco Dental Co., was pinned in the vehicle and died in the fire, Haswell said.
The passenger in the front seat, Charles Patterson, 35, of Portsmouth, died shortly after he arrived at Betsy Johnson Memorial Hospital in Dunn.
Two others in the back seat also were hospitalized.
Henry O'Toole, 43, of Chesapeake, was airlifted to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, where he was listed in serious condition. Von Karl Freudenberg, 36, of Norfolk, was listed in stable condition at Betsy Johnson Memorial Hospital. ILLUSTRATION: Vp Map
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC FATALITIES