Va. traffic crashes fatal to three

A Colonial Heights man and two others have died this week as a result of wrecks on Virginia roadways, Virginia State Police said.

Oren Walter Carter, 59, died in Sussex County on Monday after the pickup he was driving ran off the road, hit a tree and overturned. Carter was pronounced dead at 4:20 p.m. at the scene of the crash on U.S. 460, about 2 miles south of state Route 62.

Also Monday, Whitewood resident Travis Waylon Cole, 21, died in Buchanan County after a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer on state Route 638 less than a mile east of state Route 628, police said.

Police said Cole was driving eastbound when his pickup truck crossed into the opposite lane and struck a westbound tractor-trailer. Cole, who police said was not wearing a seat belt, was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:03 p.m.

On Sunday, a Suffolk man died of injuries related to a Dec. 25 wreck in Isle of Wight County.

Nathaniel Aston, 79, was a passenger in a car that crossed over the center line and hit another car on state Route 610, a half-mile west of state Route 632, police said.

State police yesterday also released the name of a Henrico County man who died Dec. 11 of injuries sustained in a crash on Nov. 30. Langley H. Smith, 79, died at VCU Medical Center in Richmond after a wreck at Three Chopt Road and Camden Drive in Henrico.