Police: Crash kills 4, including 3 Boy Scouts

The Associated Press

SEBRELL, Va. -- Three Boy Scouts and an adult leader returning home from a camping trip were killed Sunday when their vehicle ran off a rural highway, crashed into a tree and burst into flames, state police said.

John Oliver, 43, and three members of Boy Scout Troop 17 in Franklin died at the scene, said state police Sgt. D.S. Carr. The driver's son, Michael Oliver, 12, was able to get out of the car and was taken to a Norfolk hospital, police said. His condition was not available.

The three boys who died were identified as Luke Drewry, 12, and Carter Stephenson, 14, both of Franklin, and Jackson Fox, 13, of Capron.

Amanda Wroten, spokeswoman for the scouts' Colonial Virginia Council, said John Oliver was assistant scout master for the troop sponsored by Franklin High Street Methodist Church. She said troop members were returning from the Blackstone Methodist Scouting Fellowship in Blackstone, a town about 60 miles northwest of Franklin, when the accident occurred around noon.

According to Carr, another driver with the Boy Scout group looked in her rearview mirror and saw Oliver's vehicle run off "a sweeping curve" on Virginia 35 in Southampton County. Carr said there were no skid marks and no evidence the Oliver was exceeding the 55 mph speed limit.

Carr said some residents of the area heard the crash and rushed to the sport utility vehicle, but the flames made a rescue impossible.

"By the time they got to it, there was nothing they could do," Carr said.

Wroten said Dick Collins, scout executive for the Colonial Virginia Council, was with the victims' families and unavailable Sunday evening.

"At this time our primary concern is for the individuals and the families of those individuals involved in the accident, as well as four our scouting family as a while," the council said in a written statement.

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Information from: The Virginian-Pilot, http://www.pilotonline.com