Two Va. wrecks result in double fatalities

Two traffic crashes with double fatalities during the weekend boosted the state's highway death toll to 412, compared with 480 a year ago yesterday.

Virginia State Police said an Appomattox County crash yesterday took the life of 85-year-old Winston Buford Davis of Ford. He died about an hour after a 5:58 a.m. crash that saw his eastbound vehicle leave U.S. 460 and overturn about a half-mile east of state Route 707. Police said he was not wearing a seat belt.

Two Broadway men died Saturday at 4:40 a.m. when their car crossed the median of state Route 42 and struck a vehicle head-on. The driver, Lorenzo Mejia-Martinez, 29, and passenger Rojelio Mejia-Martinez, 34, were declared dead at the scene. Police said the driver was not wearing a seat belt; the passenger was wearing a seat belt.

Also Saturday, a 23-year-old woman, Jessica Ruth Gohring of Bronx, N.Y., died about an hour after her car left state Route 610 in King George County and overturned, ejecting a 5-year-old passenger, Michael A. Gohring, who also was killed. Police said neither person was wearing a seat belt in the 3 p.m. wreck.

A crash early Saturday killed Valarie Robinson, 52, of Far Rockaway, N.Y. Robinson was one of eight people traveling in a van to a family reunion in North Carolina. The collision with another vehicle, on Interstate 95 near Chippenham Parkway, about 6:20 a.m. left several other passengers with life-threatening injuries. Their conditions were unavailable last night.

-- Bill McKelway