Two people were killed in a fiery crash in Sussex County on Thursday. Police said Kevin Nathaniel Taylor, 20, of Emporia and Skylar Kirby Brockwell, 20, of DeWitt were in a car traveling south on state Route 638 around 9:30 p.m. when it ran off the road, about one-quarter mile north of state Route 602, struck a tree and caught fire. Taylor and Brockwell died at the scene. Police could not tell who was driving and said neither was wearing a seat belt.

A Virginia State Police captain accused of sexually abusing a girl over three years was released from jail yesterday after a Chesterfield County judge set his bond at $20,000. Capt. Edward L. Hope Jr., 52, had been held since his arrest at state police headquarters Jan. 26 on a single count of forcibly sodomizing a girl younger than 13. .

Citing Scriptures and Thomas Jefferson, the House of Delegates voted yesterday to approve legislation that would allow state police chaplains to invoke the name of Jesus Christ at state police events.

Icy roads were factors in three fatal crashes this week, Virginia State Police said. A 15-year-old girl died early yesterday after a wreck in Bedford County on Wednesday. Mariah Lynn Pitts of Lynchburg was a passenger in a pickup truck that was traveling on state Route 708, six-tenths of a mile south of U.S. 460. Police said the truck hit an ice patch, ran off the road to the right, struck a utility pole and overturned into a creek at 11:20 p.m. Pitts, who was not wearing a seat belt, died at Lynchburg General Hospital yesterday at 1:25 a.m., police said.

Two men died and a third was taken to VCU Medical Center with life-threatening injuries in three separate shootings in the Richmond area last night. The first occurred about 6 p.m., when a man was fatally injured on Interstate 95 in Chesterfield County from what Virginia State Police said appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Sgt. Tom Cunningham said a trooper was northbound on the interstate north of Willis Road when he saw a van swerving.

Capt. Edward L. Hope Jr. is accused of forcibly sodomizing a girl in 2002 or 2003. A Virginia State Police captain was arrested yesterday at department headquarters and charged with forcibly sodomizing a young girl more than five years ago, authorities said. Capt. Edward L. Hope Jr. was arrested at work in Chesterfield County about 2 p.m. after an investigation by state police and Chesterfield prosecutors, said state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller.

A Bumpass man died after being ejected from the bed of a pickup truck in Manassas yesterday. Kevin Everton Simpson, 21, was riding in the truck when it ran off the left side of Quarry Road near the intersection with Battery Heights Boulevard and hit a tree at 2:07 a.m. Simpson died at Prince William Hospital in Manassas, police said.

A 33-year-old man was killed in a single-car crash in Newport News yesterday. Robert Tinsley Fields IV of Newport News driving on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard, 200 feet west of Louise Drive, when he lost control of his vehicle while exiting the interstate and struck a pole at 9:59 a.m. Fields was wearing a seat belt and died at the scene, police said.

Del. Charles W. Carrico Sr., R-Grayson, said he is preparing a bill that would prohibit the superintendent of the Virginia State Police from ordering chaplains to deliver nondenominational prayers.

A man struck and killed in Lunenburg County on Tuesday was the first pedestrian death reported on state roadways this year.

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.

A Lexington woman was killed early yesterday when she lost control of her minivan and overturned off U.S. 11 in Augusta County,

Three people were killed in highway crashes yesterday, Virginia State Police said.

A Virginia State Police trooper was injured and three vehicles were damaged, including two cruisers, in a pursuit in Essex County that authorities said exceeded 100 mph. Trooper J.E. Hardy was treated at Riverside Tappahannock Hospital for a head injury and released yesterday morning, several hours after his cruiser slid off a rain-slickened road during the pursuit and crashed into a rock-lined drainage ditch, state police Sgt. Tom Cunningham said.

A Virginia State Police trooper was injured late last night when he crashed during a pursuit in Essex County. Trooper J.E. Hardy was treated at a hospital for a head injury that state police said was not life-threatening. Sgt. Tom Cunningham said James Brooks, 24, of Caret in Essex County, was charged with felony eluding and driving under the influence. He was being held at the Middle Peninsula Regional Jail pending a court appearance today.