Published: January 10, 2009 08:30 pm      

Crash kills driver

OAKVALE — A Virginia man was pronounced dead at the scene of a single-vehicle accident Saturday morning about a mile east of the Oakvale exit, in the eastbound lanes of U.S. Route 460.

Michael Lee Shaw, 34, of Christiansburg, Va., died in the wreck of his 1986 Chevrolet pickup truck, according to Sgt. G.W. Woods of the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department.

“A female passenger in the vehicle was flown by Medflight helicopter to Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, Va.,” Woods said. “She is in stable condition, but we haven’t spoken to her family yet, so I can’t release her name.”

Woods said the driver, who died in the accident, apparently lost control of his vehicle, ran it off the road into a bank and the vehicle rolled over.

The Oakvale Volunteer Fire Department and Princeton Rescue Squad responded to the scene of the accident that was reported at 11:02 a.m. Woods said that Deputy C.M. Williams, also of the Mercer Sheriff’s Department assisted with his investigation of the accident scene.

This marks the second fatal vehicle accident in Mercer County in the past four days. Woods assisted Deputy W.E. Rose in the investigation of a traffic accident that resulted in a fatality on U.S. Route 52, near the McDowell County line on Jan. 7.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com