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An Appomattox 11-year-old died Thursday afternoon from injuries he sustained in a Wednesday evening wreck in Appomattox, according to State Police.
Police identified the boy as Wayne Kenneth Chappel.
Sgt. David Cooper said Chappel was airlifted to the hospital after the wreck and died shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday at the University of Virginia Medical Center.
Trooper G.A. Smith said the accident occurred at 6:38 p.m., at the stoplight on U.S. 460 at the Shoppes of Appomattox shopping center and, along with Chappel, sent five others to the hospital.
Braxton Elliot, 16, of Appomattox, was driving a Chevrolet Tahoe east on U.S. 460 when he made a left turn, attempting to enter the shopping center. He collided with the driver’s side of a westbound Pontiac minivan driven by Pamela K. Chappell of Appomattox.
The minivan overturned, ejecting three juvenile passengers who were 9, 11 and 14 years old.
Smith said it did not appear the three were wearing their seatbelts.
Also in the vehicle was Chappell’s husband, Darrell Chappell, who was flown to Lynchburg General Hospital with injuries that Smith said were major, but not life-threatening.
Pamela Chappell was taken, along with the other juveniles, to Lynchburg General Hospital. None had serious injuries.
Smith said a fourth juvenile, 11, was in the minivan in a safety seat and was not injured.
Pamela and Darrell Chappell were both wearing their seatbelts, Smith said.
The SUV’s driver and one of his passengers, a juvenile, were taken to Lynchburg General Hospital with minor injuries.
Two other juvenile passengers in the Tahoe were unhurt. All four in the SUV were wearing their seatbelts, he said.
Smith said he doesn’t know what caused the accident, and the investigation is continuing.
He said there’s no clear indicator whether the stoplight was red or green, or whether the Tahoe had an arrow allowing the driver to turn without yielding.
“This would be a great case for stoplight cameras,” he said.
No charges had been filed in the incident as of Wednesday night, but Smith said they could be forthcoming, based on what his investigation turns up.
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Reader Reactions
well then i stand corrected, i was told by a vdot person they were used for traffic sensoring not as cameras. if you got the correct story then it makes no sense why we pay to have cameras that don’t work. i don’t see why they can’t just “monitor” traffic, and not used for running red lights to keep people from fusing about it. we would have an answer to this horrible situation.
As far as your comments about the so called cameras on the poles, my husband called VDOT yesterday and they informed him that they are not functional, this was also said by the Va. State Police. VDOT said that it is the engineering dept. of Lynchburg that would be responsible for putting cameras up.
reamey they aren’t fake cameras put up there for looks, they are traffic sensoring cameras, but they do not record anything, they just sense when vehicles pull up to the light. but your right with all the money that is wasted i am sure it wouldn’t be that hard to buy cameras that record on a 24 hour loop so it would help police find out who is at fault and who is lying, you know vdot actually spend money on something that can help protect us. i am sure people would be alittle more wary of busting thru a red light knowing if an accident happens they are on camera, and it would help the honest be protected from the dishonest when the blame game happens.
those aren’t fake cameras, they are traffic sensor cameras, they don’t film or record anything all they do is sense when vehicles pull up to the light. so they do work, and you aren’t paying for anything, however there are no traffic monitoring cameras that constantly record anywhere around here to help police in determining who is lying. i can’t believe that there aren’t any witnesses to any of this, isn’t that part of appomattox always busy with thru traffic?
Here again is the comment made about stoplight cameras. There are ones that look like cameras on the poles, but evidently they are just for looks and don’t work. Why are the tax payers spending their hard earned money for fake cameras. If that were me or someone I knew in that accident I would want to make sure that the cameras were working. As to this day there are so many stories going around about what happened, who made the turn wrong or who should have stopped. If they cameras were working the state police would know the truth by now.
please keep me anounamous. just thought you should know!!! my son Justin went to Combat Camp with Wayne. they were good friends. my wife and her best friend were first on the scene. Gwen Holt of Rustburg (a R.N.) administered CPR for 20 minutes. the appomattox rescue response time was about 18 minutes. with paid rescue squad employees now serving the appomattox area we all expected more. what the hell type of structure do we have in reguards to response time. no police officers helped Gwen, no firefighters, no one except a bystander. i think county employees feel the system is adequate. until it happens to a judge or lawyer or someone “significant” we will maintain poor response times and crash scene organization. My son was up till 3am crying. Wayne will be missed!
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