THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 16, 1995 TAG: 9503160436
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: IVOR LENGTH: Short : 28 lines
A Petersburg man was killed Wednesday morning on Route 460 when his pickup drifted across the double yellow lines in the fog and hit a flatbed tractor-trailer, state police said.
Shelton D. Gafford, who was headed west on Route 460 near Route 635 about 6 a.m., may have fallen asleep before his 1986 pickup drifted into the eastbound lane and hit the left front bumper of the truck, investigators said.
The pickup slid along the side of the tractor-trailer, ripping off the truck's driver's-side door and hood as it spun around. Gafford was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the pickup, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
State police said Gafford was driving too fast in the fog.
The driver of the flatbed truck, Carl D. Thomason Jr., 57, of Roanoke, was not injured. He was hauling a 20-ton load of bagged cement.
Route 460 was closed for more than an hour.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC FATALITY by CNB