Two wrecks on I-70 Friday night claim two lives

October 05, 1997

From staff reports

CLEAR SPRING - A Buckhannon, W.Va., man died as the result of a collision with a tractor-trailer on Interstate 70 late Friday, according to Maryland State Police.

The accident happened at about 11:33 p.m. on eastbound I-70 at Boyd Road, troopers said.

It was the second fatal accident on I-70 Friday night. At about 8 p.m., Harry Melvin Showe, 51, of Hagerstown was killed when he swerved off the road and into a tree.

According to witnesses, Dale Lyndon Hyre, 44, of Route 5, Box 18A, was going roughly 55 to 60 mph in the eastbound slow lane when he drove his 1984 Pontiac Parisienne into the rear of a slower Peterbilt tractor-trailer ahead of him, troopers said.

The truck, driven by George Poupard, 53, of Baltimore, was going approximately 50 to 55 mph and had its four-way flashers on, troopers said.

Hyre was not wearing a seatbelt and suffered severe trauma, troopers said.

He was taken to Washington County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, troopers said.

Poupard was not injured, troopers said.

Neither vehicle was carrying passengers, troopers said.

Showe ran off the highway and into a tree at about 80 mph after driving recklessly in and out of traffic. He was traveling westbound just east of the rest stop near the border of Frederick and Washington counties when the one-car accident occurred. Showe was not wearing a seat belt.

Showe was delivering packages for Turner Transportation Group of Hagerstown and had worked as a taxi driver for Turner's Taxi, as a dispatcher and as a car reupholsterer.

"Harry had a unique personality," said George Franklin Turner Sr., owner of Turner's Taxi and Turner Transportation. "He was a good worker, a civil fellow."

Turner said he was far more upset by this loss than when one of his drivers temporarily disappeared with a taxi earlier this year.

"You don't work beside somebody for 25 years and not have it bother you let me tell you," he said.

"You can replace money, you can replace mechanical items but you can't replace a human life. That's the bottom line."

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