MC man killed in Haywood crash

By Don Richeson

Published: April 3, 2008

A Madison County man died after his truck slammed into a three-foot-wide oak along the 1500 block of West Hoover Road (Route 609) in Haywood March 29. The man, Robert Lee Jenkins, 50, died at the scene, Virginia State Police Sgt. F.L. Tyler reported.

Jenkins was traveling on 609 when the 1986 Ford F-250 he was driving ran off the right side of the road about two miles west of Hebron Valley Road near the Soho Center. He overcorrected, returning to the road and traveling across it to the left and finally entering the edge of woods, where the truck struck the tree around 7:20 p.m.

He was not wearing a seatbelt, Tyler said.

It is undetermined what caused Jenkins to run off the road. As is standard procedure in all fatal crashes, authorities are examining if alcohol was involved.
The crash is being investigated by VSP Trooper B.M. Taylor.

Authorities closed a short section of 609 for about an hour while they investigated the crash. A ladder and roofing shingles that appeared to have fallen off the truck were scattered on and along the road near the site.

It is the first fatal road crash of the year in Madison County.