
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990                   TAG: 9005230360
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKER KILLED, PASSENGER HURT AS TRUCK HITS CAR

A Roanoke driver was killed early Tuesday afternoon and his passenger critically injured when he failed to heed a stop sign and his car was struck by a tractor-trailer. The accident occurred at Virginia 919 and U.S. 220 just south of Boones Mill.

According to State Trooper J.T. Harris, Willie Melvin Gibson, 51, pulled from Virginia 919 into the southbound lane of U.S. 220, where he came to a sudden halt in front of a car driven by Franklin County Supervisor Homer Murray.

Murray, 81, said he had seconds to avoid hitting Gibson's car.

"I swung as far to the right as I could," Murray said Tuesday evening, his voice still shaky. "I clipped him in the rear.

"Then that truck passed by me, carrying a load of cross ties," he said. "I guess he couldn't stop in time. The road was pretty slick. He just smashed right into it."

Murray, who was on his way to a board meeting in Rocky Mount, said he feels lucky to have come out alive.

"I guess the good Lord was riding with me," he said. "It was mighty close. All I heard was breaking glass, crunching metal - there was glass all over my car."

Harris said the driver of the tractor-trailer, Kenneth Earl Garber, 51, of Franklin County, was not injured.

A female passenger in Gibson's car was in critical condition at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Harris said. Police have been unable to indentify the woman, he said.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB