feet off mountain

Staff Report

A Suffolk couple and their dog escaped serious injury after their sport utility vehicle plummeted 200 feet down the side of Afton Mountain near Charlottesville in Thursday.

William Copeland and his wife, Jeanette, were driving east on Interstate 64 when they pulled onto a scenic overlook at about noon Thursday, police said. The SUV struck a guardrail, flipped and tumbled down the mountainside.

Copeland told state police that he remembered hitting the guardrail and going airborne.

Witnesses reported seeing the car flip end-over-end as it fell. Passing motorists called 911, and rescue squads from Albemarle County and Waynesboro used rope to haul the couple and their dog up the mountainside, according to a state police report.

The Copelands were treated and released from the University of Virginia Medical Center for minor injuries. Efforts to reach family members on Friday were unsuccessful.