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U.S. 250 claims another victim
BY JAMES JACENICH • STAFF WRITER
MONTEREY - A 30-yearold Mathias, W.Va. man died Friday around 11 a.m. at the eastern foot of Shenandoah Mountain in Augusta County.
According to media sources and Highland County sheriff Herbert Lightner, Jarrett Kyger's tractor-trailer flipped over while he was westbound on U.S. 250.
Kyger died, but his two-yearold nephew, strapped in to his car seat, survived with minor injuries.
Lightner said the highway was closed for several hours during the rescue and recovery operation.
The mountain arteries have seen their share of accidents this season. Earlier in the year, a headon collision near McDowell claimed two lives, one a resident of the county. In October, two Woodstock residents lost their lives when their motorcycle ran off the road at a curve at the foot of the western side of Shenandoah Mountain.
The sheriff's office urges those who travel the country roads of Highland to use extra caution, especially during inclement weather and the holiday season.
Col. W. Steven Flaherty, Superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said, "Every day people get behind the wheel of a vehicle and yet few realize that they are taking their own lives, their passengers' and other motorists' lives into their own hands. State police cannot emphasize enough the importance of putting safety first and preventing one's self from becoming Virginia's next traffic fatality."
Virginia has had 924 highway deaths so far this year. Sixteen people in 15 separate accidents died on Virginia's highways over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend.
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