from the USTA Communications Department

Columbus, OH — A horse was killed in a three-vehicle wreck on Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia on Tuesday (Sept. 14).

According to a story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, a tractor-trailer heading north on I-95 at mile marker 126 rear-ended a box truck, forcing that vehicle to run off the road, strike a guardrail and overturn. The tractor-trailer then went across the median and off the southbound lanes, before crossing back onto the highway and striking a GMC 2500 pickup carrying a two-axle horse trailer. The tractor-trailer and horse trailer ran off the left lanes into the grassy median and overturned.

The tractor-trailer driver, Richard J. Beam, 34, of Columbus, Ohio, and his passenger, Nancy C. Servidio, 57, of Pennsylvania, were taken to Mary Washington Hospital with life-threatening injuries, Corinne Geller, Virginia State Police spokeswoman, told the paper. The box truck’s driver, David D. Youmans, 56, of Virginia Beach, and the horse trailer’s driver, Todd S. Hill, 49, of Maquoketa, Iowa, were taken to Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center and later released.

Three horses were in the trailer when it overturned, and one was killed in the crash, reported Geller. The identity of the deceased horse has not been reported, but the two surviving horses were identified as Standardbreds owned by Leopold Sawyers — Killingtons Duke, a 10-year-old trotter, with lifetime winnings of more than $145,000 and My Buddy Jimull, a 4-year-old pacer.

The Standardbreds had raced most recently at Vernon Downs and were being shipped to Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va. My Buddy Jimull is entered to race at Colonial in the third race this Friday.