Published: August 06, 2008 08:23 pm      

Crash kills two

BRAMWELL — Two McDowell County residents were killed Wednesday afternoon when the vehicles they were driving collided on U.S. Route 52 near the Mercer and McDowell county line.

First responders were dispatched at 12:15 p.m. when a head-on collision was reported on the two-lane highway, said Deputy J.R. Coburn of the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department. The crash occurred when a Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck heading north toward McDowell County attempted to pass another vehicle and struck a southbound Pontiac Grand Am. No other vehicles were involved.

Both drivers were killed in the collision, Coburn said. Their names were being withheld pending the notification of family.

Two passengers in the Grand Am, one of them a male child between 3- to 5-years-old, were flown by helicopter ambulance to Charleston Area Medical Center, Coburn said. A landing zone for the helicopter was set up at the Route 52 Bridge near Bramwell. No additional information about their conditions was available Wednesday.

Both lanes of Route 52 were closed for three hours while first responders worked on the accident scene, causing trucks to park in Bluewell while their drivers waited for the highway to reopen. Traffic began to flow again at 3:15 p.m.

Deputy C.W. Williams, Deputy R.M. Combs and Deputy E.P. Parks worked on reconstructing the crash along with Cpl. D. Skala of the West Virginia State Police detachment in Princeton. Members of the Bramwell Volunteer Fire Department, the Bluewell Volunteer Fire Department and the Bluefield, W.Va. Rescue Squad were also dispatched.