ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 19, 1996 TAG: 9602190139
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: Newport News Daily Press
Icy roads played a part in many accidents this weekend, including a 25-car chain-reaction crash in Norfolk and a single-car accident in Newport News that killed a Hampton man.
The pileup occurred around 7:45 a.m. Saturday and closed the eastbound lanes of Interstate 64 for an hour.
Virginia State Police were still trying to piece together what happened Saturday evening. The wreck created such confusion that police spokeswoman Tammy Van Dame could only say that ``some charges were placed and there were injuries, but no serious injuries.'' Road conditions were icy at the time of the crash, said Van Dame, but careless driving, not road conditions, was mostly to blame.
``You don't have a 25-car wreck and call it weather,'' she said.
Icy roads played a bigger role in causing a Hampton man to skid off an on-ramp at the Oyster Point Road interchange around 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
The man, whose identity was being withheld until family could be notified, was driving onto eastbound I-64 when his car hit a patch of ice. The car skidded into an embankment, overturned and hit a tree before coming to rest upside down in a ditch, Van Dame said.
That accident closed the Oyster Point ramp to I-64 for nearly two hours. Police recorded more than 500 auto accidents during the sleet and snowstorm Friday, most involving one or two vehicles, Van Dame said.
``Just because the speed limit sign says 55 miles an hour does not mean that that's what you should go in these sorts of weather conditions,'' Van Dame said.
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB