Bluemont, VA—After traveling from her home in Florida to assist with power restoration efforts in Loudon County, a female utility worker died in a vehicle crash Tuesday, July 3.
Police say 57-year-old Jacqueline R. Green of Milton, FL, was driving a 2004 Freightliner bucket truck pulling a service trailer northbound on Blue Ridge Mountain Road around 7:20PM, when she lost control of the truck, swerved into the opposite lane, sped downhill, and crashed into a 2008 Freightliner trucktractor-semitrailer. The impact of the crash pushed the semitrailer into another vehicle, a 2012 Toyota Tacoma, which was traveling east.
Green died at the scene, and the passenger of her vehicle, Jonathan Powell (also of Florida), was transported to Winchester Medical Center.
The female driver of the Toyota Tacoma as well as a juvenile passenger were treated and released from Inova Loudoun Hospital-Cornwall Campus. The driver of the semitrailer was taken to the same hospital; it's unclear if this person has any injuries.
Members of the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office Crash Reconstruction Unit are investigating the cause of the crash. Preliminary evidence suggests a problem with the brakes in Green's vehicle. A witness to the accident says that it appeared that Green lost control of the vehicle's brakes on the downhill grade and that the vehicle had been picking up speed as it continued downhill.
At the time of the crash, Green was driving in a convoy of three Gulf Power trucks, come to aid Dominion Virginia Power crews from Florida.
During the investigation and recovery effort, Route 7 was closed for over 10 hours. The Loudon County Traffic Safety Unit continues an investigation of this incident.
Copyright 2012 by Young Broadcasting of Richmond
