Published: October 16, 2006 11:49 pm            

I-79 fatality

Man killed when airborne car collides with tractor-trailer

FAIRMONT — An unidentified 40-year-old Shinnston man was killed early Monday afternoon when his Chevrolet Cavalier went out of control on Interstate 79 and crossed the median, striking the front of a tractor-trailer truck, State Police said.

The 12:40 p.m. accident near milepost 142 and the Marion-Monongalia border closed the northbound lanes into the evening.

According to West Virginia State Police, the tractor-trailer was carrying acetone. Hazardous materials teams from Marion and Monogalia counties, and volunteer firefighters worked well past sunset, moving drums of solvents by hand from the damaged truck to another rig.

Police and rescue workers, aided by crews from the state Division of Highways and truck inspectors from the state Public Service Commission, kept one lane in each direction open to traffic during the early afternoon.

But when the time came to transfer the load aboard the damaged truck, the decision was made to close the interstate in both directions, officials said.

Northbound traffic was diverted at

the Pleasant Valley exit, while southbound traffic was detoured at the Goshen Road exit, said a dispatcher at the county’s 911 center.

Police believe the small car, which was traveling south, first sideswiped a Chrysler minivan, which was also southbound, said State Police Sgt. Scott Crouch.

According to West Virginia State Police, a female passenger from Dade City, Fla., was injured in that initial accident. The driver of the minivan was able to take his vehicle to Fairmont General Hospital, where the passenger was treated.

The small car, however, went out of control into the median, which is very steep at that point.

“When it came up out of the median, the car was airborne” before it struck the northbound truck, Crouch said. He is reconstructing the accident for Tpr. Kyle Totten, the officer investigating the crash.

The driver of the car was thrown out of the vehicle after it struck the left front of the truck. The car was knocked back into the median by the impact.

The truck driver, of Monticelo, Ky., was badly shaken but otherwise all right, Crouch said.

The truck driver saw the accident developing and stomped on the truck’s brakes, leaving lengthy skid marks on the pavement. Its front end smashed, the truck came to rest upright along a guardrail on the shoulder.

The identity of the dead driver is being withheld until police tell his relatives.

The incident is under investigation and names of the involved drivers/occupants are not being released pending notification of next of kin.

Responding were Vally Volunteer Fire Department, Winfield District VFD, Triune-Halleck VFD, Marion County Rescue Squad, Marion County Office of Emergency Management and the West Virginia Department of Highways.

E-mail Bill Byrd at bbyrd@timeswv.com.

        

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