Man killed trying to stop truck leaving campground

The manager of a Dinwiddie County campground was struck and killed Monday evening after he apparently fell from the cab of a truck that he tried to stop, Virginia State Police said yesterday.

Charles Louis Blazek, 57, of Disputanta was pronounced dead after being taken to Southside Regional Medical Center in Petersburg.

Police said the incident occurred about 8:50 p.m. when Blazek, manager of Picture Lake Campground off U.S. 1, saw the driver of the truck portion of a tractor-trailer try to leave the campground.

The driver "was driving in a manner that caught Blazek's attention," state police spokesman Sgt. Tom Cunningham said.

Blazek got into his car and pulled ahead of the truck to block it from leaving. He then climbed onto the truck's running board and tried opening the driver's side door, Cunningham said.

The driver stopped briefly but then drove forward to maneuver around Blazek's car. That's when Blazek apparently fell and was dragged a short distance before being run over. The truck driver, with a female passenger, then drove away on U.S. 1 heading north, Cunningham said.

Later, a campground witness acquainted with the passenger helped police contact her, and she helped police find the driver. Investigators have identified and interviewed the driver but no charges have been filed, police said. The circumstances of Blazek's death are being reviewed by the Dinwiddie commonwealth's attorney's office.

There have been 774 deaths on Virginia highways this year, compared with 981 at this time last year, state police said yesterday. Sixty-eight of this year's traffic deaths involved pedestrians, compared with 80 at this time in 2007.
Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or .

Staff writer Reed Williams contributed to this report.