Separate crashes prove fatal to three drivers

A 16-year-old driver was killed in a crash yesterday in Essex County.

Police said Justin Bevan Erwin of Dunnsville was driving a pickup truck east on state Route 611, 1 mile west of U.S. 17, when the vehicle skidded off the road to the left, struck two trees and caught fire at 8:39 p.m.

Erwin died at the scene. Police were unable to determine whether he was wearing a seat belt.

A fatal crash also took place in Tazewell County yesterday.

Ray Stansbury, 68, of North Tazewell was driving a pickup truck on state Route 678 when it ran off the left side of the road and struck a guardrail at 6:35 p.m.

Stansbury, who was wearing a seat belt, died two hours later at Holston Valley Hospital in Kingsport, Tenn.

A single-vehicle wreck on Wednesday killed a New Castle man.

Kirkland Julian Lowe Jr., 56, was driving a car on state Route 311, two-tenths of a mile south of state Route 619, when it ran off the road and struck a tree at 10:50 p.m. Lowe, who was wearing a seat belt, died at the scene, police said.

Their deaths brought the 2009 state highway death toll to 93, compared with 128 at the same date last year.