Crash victim was nurse, 'glue that held the family together’

Frances Janelle Wilson was in her mid-30s when, inspired by a nephew, she decided to join the U.S. Navy. The regimentation of the Navy appealed to her, the nephew, James Adger, said.

“She wanted everybody in push-up position at all times,” he said jokingly Thursday.

“She made sure people did things the right way,” said her sister, Carolyn Adger.

The longtime nurse, 57, had just left work at one of Sentara’s outpatient facilities in Virginia Beach on Wednesday when her car was struck head-on by a driver going the wrong way on Interstate 264.

She and the driver of the other car were killed.

The crash occurred  about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday when 29-year-old Montreal D. Fuller exited the Interstate 64 HOV lanes using the wrong ramp. He plowed through several barriers with his BMW, ending up in opposing traffic on I-264 West.

He struck a van before colliding head-on with Wilson’s Ford Taurus. Both cars caught on fire, police said. There were no other injuries.

State police are still investigating the crash, which gnarled traffic on I-264 for several hours. They don’t know how Fuller ended up driving the wrong way on one of the region’s busiest thoroughfares.

Officials with the Virginia Department of Transportation said the barriers meant to prevent such an incident were operating properly at the time of the crash. Both drivers’ bodies have been sent to the medical examiner’s office for  autopsies.

Dan Kight, Fuller’s boss since 2006, said he thinks Fuller shouldn’t have been behind the wheel.

Kight said he’d witnessed Fuller have several seizures when he worked for him in Norfolk at American Blasting Mat Co.  Sometimes, co-workers could help Fuller out of it, but they also had to call an  ambulance several times, he said.

Fuller would often walk to work or get dropped off by his father, Kight said. He described him as a pretty good salesman who did what he was asked.

But about six months ago, Kight said Fuller showed up with a BMW that he had bought at auction for about $4,000. “The first day he drove up with the car, I was like, 'Oh, no’,” he said.

No additional information about Fuller, who lived on East 27th Street in Norfolk, was available Thursday. His family could not be reached.

VDOT doesn’t plan to re-evaluate the safety of I-64’s reversible HOV lanes as a result of Wednesday’s crash, said spokeswoman Nora Jump-Scott.

“The safety measures that are in place right now are exactly the safety measures that every other HOV lane in the country uses,” she said. “The HOV lanes and the gates are completely safe.”

Wilson didn’t have children of her own but helped raise three nephews and her grandnieces while caring for her mother. She lived with her sister and mother in Chesapeake.

“I don’t know how we’re going to pull through,” said James Adger of his aunt, known to family as Janelle or Gigi. “I hate to sound that way, but she was the glue that held the family together.”

Wilson was living in Birmingham, Ala., and worked at the University of Alabama’s Burn Center when she decided to join the Navy, her nephew said.

She worked in naval medical hospitals in Jacksonville, Fla., Okinawa, Japan, and Portsmouth, said Mike McLellan, a spokesman for Navy Personnel Command.

She earned a Navy Achievement Medal while working as a staff nurse at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center for her efforts to streamline operations.

“Lieutenant Wilson’s exceptional professional abilities, initiative, and loyal dedication to duty reflected great credit upon herself and were in keeping with the highest traditions of United States Naval Service,” the award reads.

She left active duty in 1997 and was affiliated with reserve units in Norfolk and then Wilmington, N.C., McLellan said. Wilson had worked for Sentara Healthcare for more than 10 years, her nephew said. She was employed by an outpatient service near Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital when she died, he said.

Adger  said Wilson’s life was centered around her mother and his two daughters, her grandnieces: Ashley, 7, and Julia, five months.

She loved to take them shopping, to the park, and out to her garden, he said.

The last time Adger saw his aunt was Sunday, when she packed up her mother  for a trip to Fredericksburg.

Wilson didn’t go, but she took care of  every  detail, including  her mother’s medication , Adger said.

Christi Speck was driving home on I-264 East on Wednesday afternoon after taking her mother to the airport when a hubcap rolled in front of her car. She stopped and saw a mangled vehicle flipped upside down on the concrete barrier behind her. Packages and luggage littered the pavement.

She put on her hazard lights, called 911 and ran over to help. Already, several people had stopped and were trying to fight the flames, she said. A group of sailors pulled over to help.

Speck said she couldn’t see or hear the woman trapped in the driver’s seat.

As traffic crawled to a stop, she and another woman began knocking on car windows, asking for more extinguishers. When they could do nothing more, they grabbed hands and prayed, she said.

“We prayed out loud for a few minutes, just for peace and protection and for help to come quickly,” Speck said. “It was the most surreal experience I think I’ve ever had.”

After about 10 minutes, Speck heard sirens coming and decided to leave. She said she didn’t want to be in the way. She cried all the way home, but what stuck in her mind was the heroism of the people who tried to help, she said.

“They did a wonderful, selfless thing and they should be thanked,” Speck said. “I think that people who will stop and will approach something so horrific to try to help should be commended.”

Jen McCaffery, (757) 222-5119, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com