ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702170037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
Cana Rescue Squad Capt. Bill McCraw fell asleep Friday night and woke up Saturday morning thinking the same thing: It's "more or less a miracle somebody wasn't killed in it," he said.
That was the consensus around Fancy Gap on Saturday, one day after a 70-car pileup shut down Interstate 77 on the foggy mountain, seven miles north of the North Carolina border. The worst injury appeared to be a broken collarbone, state police Sgt. G.T Miles said.
Of at least 11 people taken to Twin County Regional Hospital in Galax and Northern Surry Hospital across the state border in Mount Airy, N.C., one couple remained in stable condition Saturday. The rest were treated and released, hospital officials and police said.
By Saturday morning, those still in the area who had been involved in the wreck had checked out of local motel rooms and retrieved belongings from their damaged cars, left at area auto shops. They rented cars or waited for nearby family members to pick them up, said motel operators and auto shop owners.
Like the injuries to the cars' occupants, "the big majority" of auto damage was minor, said David Smith, who operates David L. Smith Inc., a truck and auto repair shop at Exit 8 in Fancy Gap. However, he said, a few cars likely were totaled.
Miles still was adding up the damage Saturday afternoon, but said he expected it to top $1million. Drivers from at least 10 states and Canada were involved in the wreck, he said.
"It was unbelievable," repair shop owner William Combs said. "The worst one I've ever seen. Cars sitting everywhere, on top of each other."
At the wreck scene, drivers were saying, ```Did you hit me?''' said Combs, who runs Comb's Wrecker and Towing in Cana.
"They didn't know who hit who, or who hit what," he said.
About 10 people were charged with reckless driving or following too close behind another vehicle, Miles said. He was still collecting accident reports from five other troopers who worked the accident scene from 12:30-7 p.m. Friday.
"They just started slowing down when they got into that dense fog, and a couple didn't slow down, and [the others] got rammed in the rear," Miles said, calling the whole wreck "just a domino effect."
By midday Saturday, most people involved in the accident were counting their blessings.
"Everything's returned back to normal," Smith said. "The sun's shining, and we're all just as happy as a mule eatin' briars. I think everything's pretty well filtering out.
"A melee like that - we're all lucky somebody's not killed or injured, because you just don't know what it's like till you get in something like that."
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