Gail Ayers and Dale Warren Saunders of Corapeake, NC are Killed in Suffolk Crash

The rural roads near the Suffolk/North Carolina border have an unenviable record for fatal crashes.

Yesterday I wrote about a head-on collision on Carolina Road in Suffolk that claimed the lives of both drivers. One man was killed at the scene. The other died later on Tuesday after being airlifted to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital by Nightingale hospital. My thoughts are with the families of both of these victims.

The men were later identified as Dale Warren Saunders, age 59, of Corapeake, North Carolina, who was driving a Toyota Tacoma, and Mr. Gail G. Ayers, age 60, also of Corapeake, who was driving a Dodge Caliber.

As a personal injury attorney who is licensed to practice in Virginia and North Carolina, I deal with a considerable number of cases in which drivers or passengers from North Carolina are killed or injured in Virginia.

An investigation is ongoing into this early morning head-on crash close to the Great Dismal Swamp that led motorists traveling southbound on Carolina Road to be diverted onto Deer Forest Road, and motorists traveling northbound going onto Adams Swamp Road.

The crash occurred in the 5000 block of Carolina Road in the rural Whaleyville area of the city around 6:30 a.m. The two men driving the vehicles were removed by Suffolk Fire & Rescue and EMS personnel.

These rural roads can be very hazardous for drivers. In February, a mother and her daughter from Colerain in North Carolina were killed in a head-on crash on Whaleyville Blvd., in Suffolk when their PT Cruiser was struck by a minivan.

Figures from the Fatal Analysis Reporting System (FARS) indicate that 18 percent of fatal crashes that do not occur at interchanges were caused by two vehicles colliding head-on. About 75 percent of fatal head-on collisions occur on rural roads.

Suffolk has witnessed a number of accidents over the last few days. On Wednesday morning, WAVY.com reported an accident involving three cars that closed Godwin Bridge in both directions.

Suffolk Police and Suffolk Fire & Rescue responded to the 2200 block of Bridge Road, around 6:22 a.m. WAVY reported. All three of the drivers involved , two men and a woman, were ground transported to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. There were no passengers in the cars.

A moped rider was airlifted to the same hospital after he was found in the road in Suffolk early on Wednesday. Diana Klink with the City of Suffolk, said officers found a male moped rider face down in the roadway in Pinner Street. He was unconscious, but breathing. An initial investigation suggested the rider hit a curb.

Also in Suffolk, a man suffered potentially life-threatening injuries after he was pulled out of a burning car at a gas station on Bridge Road on Wednesday morning.

Suffolk Fire & Rescue crews and Suffolk Police were called out to the 1600 block of Bridge Road around 5:23 a.m. a caller reported a car on fire with an occupant at the Crittenden Sunoco.

Fire crews found a Buick that was alight. Firefighters broke the glass and removed a 64-year-old man from the car. There was no one else inside, according to WAVY.

If you lose a loved one in Suffolk, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, or elsewhere in Virginia, someone else may be to blame. You may have grounds to make a wrongful death claim on their insurance policy. Our personal injury attorneys can meet with you at no cost to discuss your case or come to you. Call us at 757.455.0077.