Wreck causes third traffic fatality in Oct.

By Tony Gonzalez

Published: October 30, 2008

A head-on collision Wednesday night was the third fatal crash in October, a month known by state police as Augusta County’s deadliest.

Steven Patrick Henry, 42, of Stuarts Draft, was killed and two others were injured at the intersection of Route 340 and School Boulevard.

Virginia State Police said Dale Michael Pleasants, 29, of Waynesboro, drove his GMC Silverado across the center lane at 7:03 p.m. while heading north on Route 340, striking Henry’s southbound 1991 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck.

Henry’s friend and passenger Kim Fields, 37, of Beachwood, N.J., was airlifted to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, state police Sgt. Michael Rossetti said. Pleasants was taken to Augusta Medical Center in Fishersville and later to U.VA.. Both were listed in fair condition today.

State police records show Augusta County traffic fatalities have decreased minimally since 2006, when there were 15 through the end of October. For the same period in 2007 there were 11 fatalities. Wednesday’s crash is the ninth fatality this year.

Statewide last year, traffic fatalities numbered more than 1,000 for the first time since 1990.

“October and November for Augusta County are the highest fatality months … we don’t know why,” First Sgt. Scott VanLear said.

Nearly a third of traffic fatalities have happened in those months since 2006.

An investigation into the crash indicates that none of the victims wore seatbelts. Speeds have not been determined and it is unknown if alcohol was a factor, Rossetti said. The accident is still under investigation and charges are pending against Pleasants.

Court records show the following traffic violations for Pleasants in Augusta County since 2002: six speeding tickets, two charges of driving with a suspended license and one ticket each for driving without a seat belt and improper driving.