Fiery wreck kills driver, closes Interstate 85 for 7 hours
Posted by
Dan DeutermanJuly 17, 2007 11:21 AMA Virginia woman who died in a fiery car crash on Interstate 85 may have fallen asleep at the wheel, according to police and media reports.
In addition, median safety cables that should have stopped her car from crossing into oncoming traffic failed to do their job.
Carolyn Ruth Mills, 59, of Bristow, Va., was killed in the car accident that occured just after 5 a.m. Monday on I-85. The Highway Patrol reported that Mills' Honda Accord ran off the left side of the road. The driver apparently jerked her car back onto the road, crossed the median and crossed into the southbound lanes, where her car collided with a tractor-trailer driven by Edward Allen Johnson, 38, of Charles City, Va..
Median cables are meant to stop cars from crossing into oncoming traffic on the interstate. But in this case, the cables failed to do their job. A trooper said that Mills' car knocked two of them down, allowing her car to cross into incoming traffic.
For more information on this subject matter, please refer to our section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.