Winter storm causes six traffic deaths

Sunday, March 3, 2002 | 5:49 a.m.

A winter storm that dumped up to 9 inches of snow on parts of Oklahoma this weekend was blamed for six traffic deaths and dozens of vehicle crashes.

The blustery storm blew out of the state Saturday afternoon, but bitter-cold temperatures and fierce winds remained Sunday. Some roads were icy and others were covered with snow drifts.

A Las Vegas woman was killed Saturday evening after her car slid off Interstate 40 and struck a tractor-trailer rig that was stuck in a center median. Amy Lynn Nutz, 20, was pinned for about 45 minutes and died at the scene of the crash in McIntosh County, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.

In Adair County, two women and a baby were killed when the car they were riding in went off the road and struck another vehicle during freezing rain Friday night. The driver, 31-year-old Ladonna Asher of Siloam Springs, Ark., and passengers Oma Diane Rowe, 30, and Justin Jacob Wittingham, 1, both of Watts, were thrown from the vehicle.

All three were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

Christina M. Potvin, 27, of The Colony, Texas, died late Friday after she lost control of her car and drove into oncoming traffic in McClain County. Five others received minor injuries in the three-vehicle crash, troopers said.

In southwestern Oklahoma, Donato Hernandez Vera, of Martha, died late Friday on an icy road in Jackson County, the patrol said. Vera, 66, lost control of his vehicle and was hit by an oncoming car.

In another serious accident, 13 passengers of a pickup truck and camper trailer fell out when the vehicle slid off the road late Friday. Three of the 13 passengers, all from Ninguna, Mexico, were seriously injured in the crash in Major County, troopers said.

And in Kay County, a Texas woman was severely injured in a rollover caused by freezing rain on Interstate 35 late Friday, troopers said. Keisha Jones, 24, of Desoto, Texas, was a passenger in a vehicle that slid off the interstate and flipped.

Snowfall amounts ranged from as little as a 1/2 -inch in Waurika to 9 inches in Pryor, northeast of Tulsa along Interstate 44. Other snowfall amounts included 1 inch in Norman; 1.3 inches in Oklahoma City; 4 inches in McAlester; 4.5 inches in Enid; 6 inches in Tulsa and 8 inches in Miami, the National Weather Service reported.