Speed in I-81 crash 'unbelievable'

A four-vehicle crash on Thursday clogged Interstate 81 near Raphine around rush hour and sent five people to the hospital, police said.

Witnesses said the wreck started when a northbound tractor-trailer attempted to pass a cluster of slowing cars. In the process, the driver of the truck struck a similar tractor-trailer and two passenger vehicles, witnesses and authorities said.

“The speed was just unbelievable,” said KC Smith, of Chesterfield. “It had to be 70-75 mph, easy.”

The crash marked the third wreck on I-81 between Raphine and Greenville in two days. Virginia State Police responded to two afternoon crashes on Wednesday, one of which required a Roanoke HAZMAT team to assist in the cleanup, authorities said.

Trooper W.H. Reid said the Thursday crash occurred at about 4:20 p.m. after tractor-trailer truck driver George Petrick, 47, of Plant City, Fla., attempted to pass slowing vehicles.

“Traffic was backed up from that wreck that they were cleaning up from last night,” Reid said. “He just came up on the traffic and didn’t know cars had slowed.”

Reid said Petrick slammed into the back of a tan Pontiac Grand Prix, driven by Phyllis Jean Hammer, 46, of Hampton. He then veered to the shoulder of the road where he scraped another truck and rear-ended a silver Dodge Caravan, sending the van spinning into a guardrail.

Petrick was delivering a load of orange juice, Reid said. Authorities charged him with reckless driving.

Half of a tan Pontiac sat in the middle of the interstate, the back half crushed beyond recognition. About 50 feet away, the blue, Florida-based tractor-trailer sat slumped over the median embankment, its engine hood missing and bits of machinery scattered across the grass.

Beyond the wreckage, a team of medics rushed Hammer to a blue and orange helicopter bound for the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville.

“They had her talking before they left,” Reid said. “She was probably going about 15-20 mph and he was probably going 60 mph when he hit her.”

Hammer’s medical status was not available Thursday night.

The four passengers in the van, who suffered minor injuries, were taken to Augusta Health in Fishersville, Reid said.

Neither truck driver was injured.

Standing away from medics and emergency workers, Doug, 60, a Michigan-based trucker who asked his to withhold his full name for work purposes, surveyed the scene before him.

“I’ve seen nine people get killed this year,” Doug said. “The guy in the blue [truck] passed me — he was just flying. He went around me and then all hell broke loose.”

Smoking a cigarette and shaking his head, he said he and his cargo — 39,000 pounds of New Jersey-bound chicken — managed to slow to a stop without hitting anyone. He blew some smoke behind him, where miles of cars stood motionless.

“And then there was a door flying in the air,” he said. “And some clothes, too. It was too fast for conditions, that’s all I can say.”

Northbound lanes reopened on I-81 at about 9 p.m.

Authorities the night before charged a Maryland man with reckless driving in another I-81 crash involving a tractor-trailer hauling potassium.

State police First Sgt. Scott VanLear said Carl Otis Mauck, 68, of Fulton, Md., lost control of his 2001 Chevy pickup truck at about 6:50 p.m. while driving north.

Mauck was struck by a 2001 International tractor-trailer driven by Billy James Brewer, 37, of Houston, Texas, VanLear said.

“Mr. Mauck hit the guardrail on the left and continued back across I-81,” he said. “He came to rest on the guardrail on the right-hand side.”

Meanwhile, Brewer, who was hauling a load of potassium, ran off the right side of the road, blasted through the guardrail and overturned, authorities said.

Medics took Brewer to U.Va. Medical Center in Charlottesville where hospital staff listed him in stable condition Thursday evening.

Robert Phillips, of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management Services, said a Roanoke-based HAZMAT team assisted in cleaning about three gallons of diesel in that wreck.

Phillips said “barely a few drips” of potassium, leaked from the tank.

He said the potassium is often used in the adhesive on mailing envelopes.

In another I-81 crash on Wednesday, Trooper Sean Simmons said authorities charged Megan Carter, 21, of Richmond, with reckless driving after she spun out control at about 6:35 p.m.

Simmons said Carter’s southbound Nissan XTerra came to rest in the left-hand lane where it was struck by a tractor-trailer driven by Kenneth Donahue, 41, of Kentucky.

Carter suffered minor injuries from the crash, he said.