High crash area
July 16th, 2011 by adminHigh crash area
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State troopers J.R. Pine, left, and A.S. Waybright stand beside vehicles that crashed Thursday afternoon on John Marshall Highway east of Interstate 81 near Strasburg. Rich Cooley/Daily
Thursday Crashes
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State trooper J.R. Pine walks past a Jeep Grand Cherokee while fire and rescue personnel work to extricate a victim after the John Marshall Highway crash. Rich Cooley/Daily
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State troopers J.R. Pine, left, and A.S. Waybright look over the remains of a Jeep Grand Cherokee that crashed Thursday afternoon in a three-car collision on John Marshall Highway east of Interstate 81 near Strasburg. At top, Rich Cooley/Daily
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Firefighters cut the roof off a minivan to free two people who were injured in a rollover along northbound I-81 Thursday evening one mile south of Woodstock. Rich Cooley/Daily
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Firefighters had to cut the roof off this mini van to free two people who were injured in an I-81 northbound rollover one mile south of Woodstock Thursday evening. Rich Cooley/Daily
Four flown to hospitals after spate of collisions near Woodstock, Strasburg
By Sally Voth — svoth@nvdaily.com
Three separate crashes Thursday in Shenandoah County sent five people to hospitals — four of them via helicopter.
In the first crash, at about noon, Lynn W. Tevalt, 58, was driving a 2004 Jeep Cherokee east on Va. 55, about a tenth of a mile north of Va. 633 (Red Bud Road), when her vehicle was struck head-on by a 2008 Honda Pilot driven by Anna K. Tweedie, state police spokesman Sgt. F.L. “Les” Tyler said.
He said Tweedie, 30, of Woodbridge, had been trying to avoid a 1994 Plymouth van that had stopped to turn left into a driveway. Her Pilot clipped the van before colliding with the Jeep, Tyler said.
Firefighters from Strasburg and Toms Brook spent 20-30 minutes cutting Tevalt free, Shenandoah County Department of Fire and Rescue training officer Billy Streett said. She was taken by helicopter to Inova Fairfax Hospital.
“I would consider her to have potential life-threatening injuries,” Streett said.
Tyler said Tweedie was taken to Winchester Medical Center. The driver of the van, Alesia A. Miller, 50, of Strasburg, and her mother, Margaret A. Pangle, 75, were both wearing seat belts and were uninjured, he said.
Tweedie was cited for reckless driving, Tyler said. He said the road was closed for about 11?2 hours.
In a second crash, a husband and wife from Ridgley, W.Va., had to be airlifted by helicopters to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville later Thursday afternoon, Tyler said.
He said a construction truck slowed to turn into a highway crossover at about 4:30 p.m. on northbound Interstate 81, just south of Woodstock. That led Earlene Royer, driving a 2006 Pontiac van, to change from the left lane to the right lane, Tyler said.
The van went off the right side of the road, and Royer, 59, overcorrected, coming back across the highway into the median, striking an embankment and overturning, Tyler said.
She and her husband, Walter, age unavailable, were both injured, Tyler said. He said the crash remained under investigation Thursday evening.
A third crash on Interstate 81 north of Toms Brook tied up traffic later Thursday evening.
The highway was backed up at least three miles, according to traffic cameras.
Marlena Combs, 31, of Winchester, was flown by medical helicopter to Inova Fairfax Hospital after her 2002 Hyundai Accent collided with a 2006 Freightliner tractor-trailer around 7:30 p.m., Tyler said.
The driver of the tractor-trailer was not injured, he said. No charges have been filed in that crash, but it is still under investigation, he said.
– Staff writer Kaitlin Mayhew contributed to this story.
