By CHAD ABSHIRE

Staff Writer

GILBERT – At 11:37 a.m. on Thursday, four vehicles were involved in an accident on U.S. RT 52, in front of the Jay Michael Mart in Varney.

Stephen Wolford was driving southbound in a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado, and witnesses say that a car had stopped in front of him, to turn into the Jay Michael Mart. Wolford swerved to avoid that car, but struck a 1988 Chevrolet truck, driven by Russell Lester Jr., TFC L.T. Goldie Jr., of the West Virginia State Police, said.

That accident proceeded and struck a parked 1998 Ford Ranger that was in the parking lot of the Jay Michael Mart. The driver of that truck was inside the store, but his wife was in the passenger seat, talking to a pedestrian. The other two trucks crashed into that truck, hitting a trash bin and the pedestrian who was talking to the woman within the Ranger.

“And the momentum of those trucks hit a fence that fell over onto a parked 1997 Ford F-150, damaging it,” Goldie said.

No one was inside the parked F-150.

The female passenger in the Ranger, and the person she was talking to, were both flown out to hospitals, Goldie said. Lester was also taken to a hospital, but by ambulance.

Goldie did not know the extent of the injuries of those transported out, nor the hospitals they were taken to.

Wolford was charged with failure to maintain control of his vehicle.

The accident is still under investigation.

This marks the second accident in Varney this week. On Monday, about a half-mile north of Murphy Branch Road, three people were injured in a three-vehicle accident.