Mount Olive man killed on highway after tractor is hit
By Turner Walston
Published in News on January 2, 2006 1:51 PM
A Mount Olive man was killed Sunday when a car struck the tractor he had been driving and pushed it on top of him.
Braddock Bernard Gross, 67, of Edenton Road died at about 5:50 p.m. Sunday. The accident happened on Lee's Country Club Road, just west of Mount Olive.
Gross had stopped the tractor on the shoulder of the road, Highway Patrol investigators said, and had gotten down from the seat. He was standing beside the tractor when it was hit by a 1987 Buick driven by Christopher Boykin, 22, of Lee's Country Club Road.
Boykin was not charged.
Sgt. K.W. Cooke said the Massey-Ferguson tractor was parked partially on the highway. It had no lights or a reflector, and Boykin did not see it until it was too late, Cook said. Sundown was at 5:10 p.m., according to the Farmer's Almanac.
"There was no lighting or anything reflective on the tractor, and it was not visible until the last minute, and he didn't have time to stop," Cook said.
Boykin was not injured. His car was destroyed. Its value was estimated at $2,600.
It was the first traffic fatality of the year in Wayne County.