Bellview – A couple from Ohio were injured when their motor home collided with another vehicle on U.S. 19/129 late Friday morning.
The crash closed Blairsville Highway in both directions, with traffic backed up for miles.
The couple were in their Sunseeker Class C motor home on Moccasin Creek Road where it intersects at Blairsville Highway about 11:30 a.m. Friday. They turned onto Blairsville Highway into the path of a Mercury Mariner SUV driven by Helen Baenninger, 80, of Blairsville, Ga., said N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Shawn Wilson, who was at the scene.
Baenninger was examined by medics on scene and did not require hospitalization. Wilson said the couple were transported via Cherokee County Emergency Medical Services to Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital in Peachtree with non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver was identified as Dennis Matey, 70, of New Springfield, Ohio. Wilson did not have the wife’s name. Damage to both vehicles appeared repairable and both vehicles were moved off the roadway under their own power shortly after the crash.
The road continued to be blocked for another half hour by emergency vehicles that responded to the incident, and by volunteer firefighters who spread absorbent material on radiator fluid that spilled from the motor home after clearing the highway of crash debris.
One lane of traffic was restored about 40 minutes after the crash, with the road fully reopened a half hour later.