Woman killed in single-vehicle accident

A Pleasant Valley woman believed to be in her 80s died Monday morning after the car she was riding in crashed into a wall near East Fairmont Junior High School on Morgantown Avenue near Elkins Street.

The woman’s husband was driving a car that apparently jumped the curb and crashed into the wall, said Chief Kelley Moran of the Fairmont Police Department.

“It obviously went over the curb and hit the wall,” Moran said. “I don’t know the cause but I don’t believe road conditions were responsible.”

Snow however did prevent HealthNet from flying to the area and landing to take the woman to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, said a dispatcher with Marion County Central Communications.

“They tried to get HealthNet but HealthNet couldn’t fly,” the dispatcher said.

The accident was called in at 7:52 a.m., the dispatcher said. The couple was entrapped and rescuers needed to use hydraulic rescue tools to free them.

The Marion County Rescue Squad took the couple to Fairmont General Hospital. The woman died and the man was transported to Ruby Memorial Hospital.

Police are not releasing the names of the couple until more family members have been notified, Moran said. The couple’s son was with his father and wanted to wait to see how well his father responded to medical treatment before police release the names.

“They are really upset,” Moran said.

Although he said snow did not cause the accident, Moran does not know what did happen.

“That’s one of the things that has yet to be determined,” he said.

However, “At this time, I don’t see any charges forthcoming.”

Snow did seem to be the cause of several other car accidents Monday morning, including a slew of crashes that took place near exit 137 of Interstate 79 North.

Both northbound lanes of I-79 were shut down from about 7:30-9 a.m., said a dispatcher from Marion County Central Communications.

The dispatcher thought chain-reaction accidents were to blame, but according to Trooper Joseph Bush of the Fairmont detachment of the West Virginia State Police, multiple accidents took place around the same area.

“We had three crashes with no injuries and the interstate was closed for about two hours,” he said.

The first accident took place at 7:06 a.m., the dispatcher said.

In addition to the State Police, responding to the accident were the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, the Marion County Rescue Squad and Pleasant Valley, Winfield District and the Barrackville volunteer fire departments.

Finally, at around 10:05 a.m., one car ran a red light and T-boned another car at the intersection of Adams Street and Jefferson Avenue next to the Marion County Courthouse, according to the dispatcher and Moran.

“They had entrapment in that one, too,” the dispatcher said.

The Fairmont Police Department, the Fairmont Fire Department and the Marion County Rescue Squad responded to that accident and one person was transported to Fairmont General Hospital, the dispatcher added.

“It was a minor vehicle accident,” Moran said. “Someone ran the red light.”

Car accidents picked up again after dark when the snow started to stick to the road again, but as of mid-evening, there were no injuries, although two vehicles collided on Coleman Avenue in a hit-and-run incident at 7:30 p.m.

Email Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.