21-year-old dies in car accident
Dionne Waugh
[email protected]
June 30, 2005
Kristy Overstreet
A 21-year-old Bedford woman died Wednesday morning after the car she was driving slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer on U.S. 460 in Bedford County, Virginia State Police said.
The accident shut down the eastbound lanes of U.S. 460 for about an hour and caused traffic to be rerouted for more than three hours.
Kristy Dawn Overstreet was driving a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am east on U.S. 460 when she hit the right, rear corner of a tractor-trailer that was turning westbound from a crossover lane, Virginia State Police Trooper Ron Johnson said.
Because there was no turn lane, however, part of the trailer was still in the travel lane of U.S. 460, he said.
Overstreet was killed instantly when she hit the tractor-trailer and her car spun around 180 degrees, coming to rest perpendicular to the road, Johnson said.
Driver inattention caused the accident, and it could have been avoided, Johnson said.
“If she had seen it, (there was) nothing in the right lane that would’ve prohibited her from … getting out of the way,” he said.
The accident happened at 7:45 a.m. on U.S. 460 a half-mile from Virginia 803. It was about six miles east of the Bedford Wal-Mart.
Police don’t yet know how fast Overstreet was driving, but the speed limit on that part of U.S. 460 is 55 mph.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, Donald Allan Reinhardt, 52, of Thaxton, does not face any charges, Johnson said.
Reinhardt’s 2000 flatbed tractor-trailer was carrying metal building materials and weighed about 33,000 pounds.
Overstreet was a rising senior at Lynchburg College, the school confirmed Wednesday evening.
“The Lynchburg College community joins me in expressing deepest sympathy and support for Kristy Overstreet’s family. It is especially tragic when such a promising young life is cut short,” college President Kenneth Garren said.
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Originally Posted by InfiniteNothing
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