Passenger Killed, Three Injured in I-81 Pileup Near Greenville, VA | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

A long drive turned deadly for an 80-year-old Deerfield, Florida (FL), woman when the car in which she was riding ran into the rear end of an SUV on I-81 during the late afternoon of July 17, 2011. That crash led to wrecks for four other vehicles and serious but non-life-threatening injuries for the first car’s driver and two men in a pickup truck after that car careened into the truck’s path..

The accident occurred near Greenville, Virginia (VA), and state police officers told the Staunton News Leader that they were considering filing charges against the man who caused the six-vehicle pileup. Officials also told the newspaper that they were responding to a motorcycle wreck further up the highway at the time of the fatal chain-reaction accident.


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In an initial report on this rear-end and chain-reaction collision, the Staunton News Leader noted that while traffic was moving at interstate speeds, vehicles were closely bunched because of nearby road work and the crash scene the drivers were approaching. In such conditions, even a moment’s inattention can lead to tragedy.

Distracted driving has not been named as the cause of the deadly accident, but it is no stretch to suspect that the driver in the SUV may have found it necessary to suddenly hit his brakes because he had failed to notice an upcoming slowdown or obstacle. It is also easy to picture a situation in which the car’s driver had let his attention drift away from the vehicle he was following and became aware of the impending collision too late to prevent it.

EJL