By Connie Morrison —
A four-car crash on US-13 in front of McDonald’s injured 15 people, at least one critically.
“Three vehicles were stopped at the light. The fourth vehicle failed to stop, which in turn hit the other, which in turn hit the other” said Onley Police Chief John Spivey, describing the chain reaction. “The back two were SUVs and the front two were sedans.”
Spivey arrived on the scene around 2:30 p.m. Friday and estimated the crash happened about 10-15 minutes before his arrival. Onancock Volunteer Fire Department was already on the scene, he said, and had begun to assist the injured.
Ambulances transported 10 of the injured to nearby Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital. Others injured elected to leave by private vehicle.
Spivey was interviewed by telephone Saturday as he completed paperwork from the crash. “They (Onancock Volunteer Fire Department) did a fantastic job,” he said. “Moving that many people is not an easy thing.”
“We had an incident command system that worked,” said Onancock Chief Adam James. He had command of the scene and paramedic Spencer Davis served as EMS officer, taking the lead in assessing and prioritizing patient transport.
Patients were “shipped out based on the critical nature of care,” said James. Some of the non-critically injured were transported together in ambulances with multiple medics.
“Spencer did good job determining who was a priority for transport and in what order,” James said.
Route 13 was shut down intermittently for a combined estimated 30-35 minutes. “We tried to accommodate traffic as best we could, but there came a time when we had to shut it down,” Spivey said.
Accomack County Sheriff’s Department and the Onancock Police Department assisted by providing traffic control. Tasley, Parksley, Melfa, Painter, and Saxis, which had just left the hospital, assisted with emergency medical response. Companies in Bloxom and Nassawadox stepped in to take calls that would have gone to Onancock and Parksley during the time Onancock and Parksley were tied up at the scene.
No charges have been filed.
**This article has been updated since originally posted to add Tasley to the responding companies and to correct the name of the Onancock Volunteer Fire Department Chief.**
