Saturday, August 8, 2009

Woman airlifted after wreck; traffic disrupted


Woman airlifted after wreck; traffic disrupted
by Tom Joyce
21 days ago | 1033 views

FANCY GAP, Va. — A woman was airlifted to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center after a one-vehicle accident Friday which also disrupted traffic on Interstate 77 for hours.

The accident happened about 2:50 p.m. in Carroll County near the 3.5-mile mark of southbound I-77 near the bottom of Fancy Gap Mountain, according to Trooper R.B. Phipps, the investigating officer with the Virginia State Police.

A woman from Florida was driving a pickup pulling a tagalong trailer, with her husband as a passenger, said Phipps, who was not reached until Saturday and did not have his accident report containing the names and ages of the pair.

The pickup, traveling in the right lane, went out of control, causing both it and the camper to overturn along the roadside. “It totally destroyed the camper,” said the trooper, who added that the pickup was totaled as well.

“They were already out when I arrived on the scene,” Phipps said of the couple.

The woman had a knot on her head and was bleeding, he said. She was airlifted to the Winston-Salem hospital, but her injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. The husband, meanwhile, was transported by a Carroll emergency crew to Northern Hospital of Surry County.

Phipps said the accident forced the closure of one lane of southbound I-77 for about five hours so the site could be cleared.

The trooper added that the woman first told him “crosswinds” had caused the pickup to go out of control. And when Phipps advised her that there was no wind at the time, she then said the wind off a tractor-trailer she had passed caused the pickup to get “loose.”

He charged her with reckless driving and failing to maintain control.

The Cana Volunteer Fire Department was among the agencies assisting at the scene, Phipps said.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.

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