Crashes kill 2

An early-season snowstorm rumbled into the Valley on Saturday, slickening roads and leading to crashes that killed two people and injured a state policeman.

With snow falling at the rate of an inch per hour throughout the morning, state police responded to 15 crashes in Augusta County between 7 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

One killed a Clifton Forge man on Route 42 north of Augusta Springs. In the late afternoon in the Afton area, a state trooper rolled his cruiser while responding to a crash. A two-vehicle smashup a short time later killed one man and seriously injured another.

Combined, Waynesboro and Staunton police reported just one “fender-bender.” Valley snowfall measured 4 to 7 inches and tapered off around nightfall. Precipitation is not expected again until Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service.

Virginia Department of Transportation crews braced for the storm, treating roads starting Friday and area retailers saw snow shovels and salt moving from their shelves at only a moderate pace.

But the storm wreaked havoc with trees, power lines and roads and made rural roads treacherous.

Glen Allan Curtis, 46, of Clifton Forge, was riding along Route 42 near Jefferson National Forest when his wife, Susan, lost control of the family’s 1996 Ford van. The vehicle careened down an embankment and hit a tree at about 10 a.m., killing Glen Curtis, state police First Sgt. Scott VanLear said.

Susan Curtis and a 14-year-old boy were taken to Augusta Health in Fishersville for non-life-threatening injuries, police said. All occupants were wearing seatbelts. Charges are not expected, police said.

A late-afternoon flurry of accidents had rescuers flocking to the Afton area.

Just before 2:30 p.m. while driving to a crash, Trooper W.R. Floyd lost control of his cruiser, rolled it and slammed it into a rock wall around mile marker 101 headed westbound on Interstate 64, authorities said. State police Sgt. David Brown said Floyd was treated and released at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville.

Not long after the trooper’s crash, the driver of a Ford F-350 pickup was killed when the truck collided with a Toyota Land Cruiser on Route 250 near the I-64 interchange and the entrances to Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, state police said. Authorities did not provide the drivers’ identities.

State Trooper A.T. Covey attributed the crash to weather conditions.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Stephen Konarik said the heavy dump of snow was well-anticipated as evidenced by a winter storm warning issued at 10 Friday night.

VDOT officials said crews began Friday applying anti-icing chemicals to Route 250 and I-64. VDOT Verona residency administrator Tim Fitzgerald said crews applied chemicals by 3 p.m., then hit the roads again before 1 a.m. Saturday.

“Everything went real good,” Fitzgerald said.

A full crew stayed out all day and night and will be out again today, he said.