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Nelson County Life Magazine – Copyright 2007
Photography by Yvette Stafford
151 Accident shuts down highway @ Greenfield Road (635)
Greenfield, Virginia
By Tommy Stafford : 8-30-07 Updated 9:11 PM EDT
Nelson County Life Magazine
Greenfield, Virginia
Early Thursday afternoon just after 1PM two people (we learned late it may be as many as three) Three people were killed in an accident at the intersection of Route 151 and Greenfield Road (State Route 635). We understand it was a mother and her two young children. Virginia State Police Sgt. G.L. Miller tells NCL 48 year old, Laura Cavedo of Afton, was killed in the accident as were her two children ages 9 and 12. One vehicle, seen above, flipped on its side in the middle of the road. Troopers and rescue personnel had the highway shut down for a little over 3 hours while the scene was cleared.
Sgt Miller tells us that Trooper J. Wagner investigated the accident. Sgt. Miller went on to say that Ms. Cavedo was either stopped or slowing down southbound to make a left hand turn onto Route 635. A box truck driven by, Shawn Lloyd, of Ruckersville rear ended the Honda Civic driven by Ms. Cavedo. The impact pushed the car into another oncoming Fisher Auto Parts delivery van which impacted the Civic after she was pushed into his oncoming traffic spinning around. The van then flipped landing in the highway on it’s side. Sgt Miller said all of the people in Ms. Cavedo’s car were belted in on impact but the accident too great to survive. Tragically, the young children were killed at the scene, Ms. Cavedo died a short time later after she was airlifted to UVA.
Though the accident is still under investigation, state police say the facts of the accident are pretty clear. Sgt. Miller says they think Lloyd fell asleep at the wheel, there we no skid marks at the scene which would indicate brakes were never applied prior to the impact. Shawn Lloyd has been charged with reckless driving as of Thursday evening.
None of the other injuries on the scene in other vehicle were life threatening.
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Earlier posts:
Updated: 4:40 PM – All traffic is flowing normally again along 151
Updated: 4:23 PM – Some traffic is now squeezing by in both directions, but it is still very slow as wreckers get the road cleared
Updated: 4:04 PM video added & 151 still closed as of this post – sounds like it will reopen soon
Updated: 3:03 PM EDT – Route 151 is still shut down. Traffic northbound is being diverted to Route 6 East toward 29. Traffic southbound above near Ashley’s Market is being turned around. Accident reconstruction crews are on the scene now.
Updated: 2:24 PM EDT Med flight chopper airborne headed to hospital
Updated: 2:22 PM EDT
Road is still blocked, NCL believes there are two fatalities in the accident. Chopper has landed at old Rockfish school, but apparently may not be needed. More shortly.
-T-
Updated: 1:57 PM EDT
Scroll below for photos from scene and info
Route 151 in Greenfield at Greenfield Road (635) is shutdown due to a major auto accident involving three vehicles. Injuries are serious, we are working to confirm fatalities. We believe at least one person has been killed.
A med flight helicopter is enroute to transport at least one of the injured. Our Yvette Stafford is still on the scene and updating us. The road is expected to be shut down for a lengthy time as crash team officials from VA State Police are on the way.
Continue to hit refresh link above to get latest updates.
Video of one of the accident victims being flown out from the old Rockfish School in Afton Thursday afternoon.
Personally I am appalled at how this was handled by the reporter and photographer. I understand that this is news, and it is your job to share it, but with so many pictures? And your comments…”chopper has landed…but apparently may not be needed.” The family of these children and their mother had not yet been notified and you were publishing information for everybody to see. I feel this was extremely disrespectful, and my heart aches for the family. I was deeply upset and saddened to see the way this was written…I feel sickened by your lack of compassion.
Concerned,
Generally we don’t respond to “Concerned Citizen or Anonymous” entries since we feel if someone is expressing an opinion they should be willing to put their name to it … However we are making an exception in this case.
First let us assure you we have taken the utmost care in this case to be compassionate in our reporting. We came from a side of the business that has no compassion, television news. We could have easily, and legally, shown far more in our photos. We opted to stay back, keep our views wide and only report on the progress and closure of 151. Don’t believe it, take a look at what the television stations showed in the evening news, it was much closer and in tight.
Our website had 300 hits in a very, very short time Thursday afternoon from folks wanting to know what was happening and why an entire two lane highway through the valley was shut down for 3 hours. We answered those questions by our live blogging. That’s what live blogging / reporting is. As we had fresh updated information, we posted it. And corrected any misinformation.
We almost immediately knew the identities of the people unfortunately killed in this tragic accident, but out of respect and compassion we have not reported it. We ourselves were interviewed by other media, and though we knew exactly where the family lived, we didn’t tell them because we didn’t want a bunch of TV reporters running to the home or the community asking people “how they feel.”
Only tonight after we received official confirmation from the Virginia State Police have we revealed the identity of the mother.
We appreciate your comment, and understand your position. There is never a good way to report this type of tragedy, never.
-T-
I would like to say you did a great job covering this story. I was in the traffic on one side & my grandfather on the other side. He is in his 90’s. We did everything to find hiim then we found out that he was in your yard. With the updates up had for everyone an with the kindness you should the eldry people we were able to locate my grandfather to make sure he was safe.
I would first like to thank you & your wife for taking in my grandfather an making sure he had something to drink in the heat that was very sweet of you both.
Second thank you for covering this story if it hadn’t been for your site no one would have know anything until 11pm with the night news came on.
I saw channel 29 vans on the scene. I checked their website an of course it was nothing on it about the wreck. I think checked our (local) newspaper sites to see if they had anything again of course nothing.
I live here in afton an it is super nice to finally have someone in the community that will report & post events as they happy.
Due your quick thinking of posting this on your site you saved a lot of people from being stuck in the traffic for hours & people was able to follow the progress of the road opening.
Again, I thank you for such great job you did yesterday. Our whole family thanks you for looking after our grandfather/father.
It proves that it is some people around here with big hearts an the care about other people.
I am pleased to say thank you & you did a great job. Keep up the good work.
Best Regards
Diane G.
Excellent, compassionate reporting of this story. If “Concerned” would take the time to check out your timeline, they would see the time you released the names of the deceased, well after the Charlottesville media did. You handled a terrible, tragic situation in a delicate way, keeping sensitive information close, while letting the community know what was happening, and to avoid the area. I ache for this family, and for all the family and friends affected by this senseless tragedy.
Good coverage and well done and I say that as someone with 30 years experience in news. Considering the interest to the community and not just the commuters, you could have put out more information than you did, served the public good and not walk into the land of sensationalism.
You walked the line well.