Fiery, head-on crash closes 231

A Madison County two-vehicle, head-on collision kept Route 231 closed for nearly two hours Tuesday morning as firefighters battled towering columns of fire and smoke that roared up again and again from the car involved in the crash. Yet in spite of the blaze that repeatedly engulfed the 2002 Lincoln sedan driven by a Rochelle women, both that woman and the Culpeper woman driving the second vehicle, a 1996 Chevy truck, escaped injury, a Virginia State Police spokesman said.

The Rochelle woman, Katherine Grace Comer, 27, was driving the Lincoln northbound on South Old Blue Ridge Turnpike when her vehicle crossed the double-yellow centerline and struck the oncoming southbound truck driven by the Culpeper woman, Cassie Lynn McDonough, 42. The 8:37 a.m. crash occurred just south of Whites Lane in the Uno community. Following the impact and apparently after both drivers had exited their vehicles, the Lincoln became engulfed in flames.

Firefighters with the Madison County Volunteer Fire Company responded quickly to the crash and continually doused the burning car with a special flame-retardant foam, but it kept re-igniting. The burning car remained stuck in the middle of Route 231, preventing authorities from re-opening it until the fire was brought under control and the car was removed at 10:25 a.m.

Comer was issued a summons for failure to stay on the right side of the roadway, according to Sgt. F.L. Tyler, the VSP spokesman.

Trooper S.E. Nelson is investigating the crash.