Public Safety

LAMBSBURG — Charges are pending in the Aug. 17 van-vs.-motorcycle crash on Interstate 77 that left a 53-year-old Portsmouth man dead.
Virginia State Police Trooper John Delp reported that victim Robert Terrell Hensely was northbound near I-77’s 1.8 mile marker in the center lane when the incident occurred. That’s when a 1998 Chrysler van, operated by Joe Cook of Woodlawn, changed lanes from the left to the center, the report said. That caused the motorcycle to strike an International tractor-trailer being operated by a Mario Garcia.

WYTHEVILLE — A 58-year-old Ivanhoe man was killed and a 64-year-old Fries man was injured in a head-on collision on Ivanhoe Road Friday at 11:17 a.m.

Virginia State Police Trooper C.O. Brown identified the driver who was killed as Richard Jefferson Jr., who was driving a Suzuki SX4 hatchback at the time.

That vehicle was struck by a 2000 Ford Excursion, driven by James Douglas Underwood. The trooper reported that the Ford went across the line and into oncoming traffic.

UPDATED 8/21/11:

A raccoon that attacked a 17-month-old boy and his father in the Country Club Lane area on Aug. 11 tested positive for rabies over the weekend, the first case this year for Galax, said Kristina Webb, an environmental health specialist at the city’s health department.
The child and his father have received their second of six sets of treatments. Both were treated for rabies the day of the attack at the emergency room at Twin County Regional Hospital, while they awaited lab results.