Two die in head-on crash after car plows through HOV gates

VIRGINIA BEACH

The barriers were down, the red and yellow lights flashed their warning, and the overhead sign barred entry.

But Montreal D. Fuller, 29, of Norfolk drove past the signs on Wednesday and plowed through the barriers meant to prevent drivers on Interstate 64’s reversible HOV lanes from entering oncoming traffic. He drove a BMW the wrong way onto Interstate 264 West, crashing head-on with another vehicle. The cars burst into flames, and both drivers were killed.

The crash occurred shortly before 1:30 p.m., just after the I-64 HOV lanes opened to eastbound traffic. In the morning, they accommodate drivers traveling west.

Fuller took the wrong ramp from the I-64 HOV lanes, and the BMW went into oncoming traffic instead of I-264’s eastbound lanes, said Sgt. Michelle Cotten, a state police spokeswoman.

A van heading west on I-264 swerved when its driver saw the BMW, Cotten said. The car clipped the van in the rear, but the driver was uninjured, she said.

But Frances Wilson, the woman driving the Ford Taurus behind the van, didn’t have time to react to the BMW, Cotten said. The force of the impact ignited the two vehicles. The drivers died in their cars, she said. Wilson, who lived in the 500 block of Windward Drive in Chesapeake, was 57. 

She worked for Sentara Healthcare, spokeswoman Emman Inman confirmed today. She would not say where she worked within the health care system. Wilson had an active license with the state as a registered nurse, according to state records.

No one else was in the vehicles.

It’s unclear why Fuller exited the wrong way, Cotten said. He lives in the 800 block of E. 27th St. in Norfolk.

As a result of the crash, several inner lanes of I-264 East and West as well as the reversible HOV lanes on I-64 were closed for more than three hours Wednesday afternoon as authorities cleared the crash and began investigating. The Interstate 564 HOV lanes also were closed, Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Nora Jump-Scott said.

The ramps for the reversible HOV lanes have flashing lights, six barrier gates and overhead signs alerting motorists to when the ramps can be used, Jump-Scott said. They were operating properly at the time of the crash, she said.

Fuller would have had to plow through the barriers to enter I-264 West going the wrong way, Cotten said.

“We absolutely have no earthly idea, nor could we speculate, on how anyone could do what the state police are reporting occurred,” Jump-Scott said.

“There’s just no way to get around these ramps.”

Cotten said several HOV barriers were severely damaged in the collision, but VDOT officials immediately began repairing them.

The line of six red-and-yellow-striped metal gates that control access to reversible HOV lanes are equipped with sensors, Jump-Scott said. When one or more are struck, they trigger a change in color on an electronic wall map at a control center in Virginia Beach.

Typically, that prompts VDOT officials to dispatch a Safety Service Patrol truck . Jump-Scott said she wasn’t sure whether the wrong-way driver tripped the sensors on Wednesday; VDOT officials monitoring closed-circuit TV screens that show local highways spotted the accident and called state police.

“It would be pretty difficult to get around them,” she said of the gates. “They’re hit quite often, actually.”

On one night in December 2004, police stopped and arrested two wrong-way drivers on local highways without collision or injury, one in the reversible I-64 HOV lanes. VDOT officials monitored the wayward vehicles, in one case stopping traffic at the Downtown Tunnel, which was in the driver’s path. Wednesday’s fatalities weren’t the first caused by a wrong-way crash involving the reversible HOV lanes.

In February 2006, a drunken driver went the wrong way on I-264 after leaving the HOV ramp by Newtown Road, close to Wednesday’s site. About 200 yards later, his vehicle struck another, killing a 26-year-old man.

State police said the HOV gates were in place at the time of that crash. The driver, Shane Williams, pleaded guilty to aggravated involuntary manslaughter in Norfolk Circuit Court.

In March 1997, two people died on I-64 after a driver entered the reversible, barrier-enclosed HOV lanes going the wrong way. His vehicle struck another head-on.

Just as in Wednesday’s crash, authorities couldn’t explain why the barriers didn’t deter the driver.

Pilot writers Matthew Bowers and Lauren King contributed to this report.

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com