A Florida woman in the area to help restore power died in a crash Tuesday night near Bluemont, Va.
Jacqueline Green, 57, of Milton, Fla., apparently lost control of the brakes on a bucket truck pulling a service trailer north on Blue Ridge Mountain Road approaching Route 7 about 7:20 p.m., according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. Witnesses said the bucket truck appeared to pick up speed as it continued down the hill, and Green went into the southbound lanes of Blue Ridge Mountain Road and past the first truck in a convoy of utility trucks.
When the bucket truck got to Route 7, it struck a truck tractor-semitrailer, which was pushed into the side of a Toyota Tacoma, according to the sheriff’s office.
Green died at the scene. Her passenger, Jonathan Powell, was taken to Winchester Medical Center. The driver of the Tacoma and her juvenile passenger were treated and released at Inova Loudoun Hospital-Cornwall Campus. The driver of the semitrailer also was taken to Cornwall Campus.
Route 7 was closed for more than 10 hours.
Investigators are checking out the brakes on the bucket truck.
Green was in a convoy of three Gulf Power trucks assisting Dominion Power with restoration of power lost in Friday’s derecho. She was headed to a staging area at that intersection.
Her death brings the death toll blamed on the storms and the blackout to 26, the Associated Press reported.
