The Point Pleasant Register in West Virginia reported that a second fatal accident occurred in Mason County in as many weeks. This fatal car and truck wreck took place around 6:30 in the evening on Tuesday. The highway was closed for four hours in the wake of the car accident. The West Virginia Police are still investigating the details of the case.
The accident took place on US Highway 35, when 44-year-old Stanley Gray of Putnam County hit a deer on the road and lost control of his vehicle. His eastbound sedan crossed over the double-yellow centerline and into the westbound path of a Volvo big rig driven by 49-year-old Evon Gray. The tractor trailer, owned by Swift Transportation, Inc. hit the PT Cruiser head on.
The 18-wheeler ran off the road while the Cruiser bounced back into the eastbound lanes where it was hit a final time by a pickup truck driven by Charles Ellis of Pliny, WV.
Stanley Gray was killed on the scene and taken to the Pleasant Valley Hospital morgue, while the other two drivers were not seriously injured.
The second fatal accident in 2009 happened on January 21, when a car carrying three men was involved in a single-vehicle accident on Sand Hill Road in Point Pleasant. Two of the men were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, while a third man was airlifted to St. Mary’s Medical Center with serious, life-threatening injuries.
Officials say the three men were celebrating one of the men’s 21st birthday and that alcohol may have been a factor in the crash. The West Virginia State Police said that the investigation was ongoing and that charges were pending.
In a third and final serious accident in Mason County, Jessica Durst, 21, and Jarrod Donohew, 27, both of Leon, West Virginia, were involved in a two car accident on State Route 62. The head-on wreck took place when Donohew tried to pass another vehicle and struck Durst’s vehicle. Both were airlifted to the Cabell Huntington Hospital, where both are recovering from serious injuries.