Man dies in weekend crash
By Dennis Hill
Published in News on April 7, 2008 2:05 PM
A 48-year-old Zebulon man died after his pickup truck plunged into a creek off Red Hill Road near Eureka sometime late Saturday or early Sunday, the Highway Patrol said.
Robert Lynn Herndon died after a single-vehicle crash in which his Ford pickup apparently struck a bridge railing and overturned into the creek, Trooper J.B. Wiggs said.
Authorities estimated that the accident took place around 4 a.m. Sunday, less than a mile from the Wilson County line.
Wiggs said he was not dispatched until around 2 p.m. Sunday, about 10 hours after the crash.
The road travels north and south, but there is a curve in the roadway near the bridge, the trooper said.
"At that point, it curved around, so he was traveling east (before impact)," Wiggs said.
The road, which connects to N.C. 222, is not frequently traveled. That might have been the reason the crash was not reported immediately, authorities said.
Some area residents said they contacted Stantonsburg police earlier on Sunday after noticing the truck in the water, but that the state Highway Patrol wasn't notified until the afternoon.
Wiggs said the Highway Patrol troopers are still investigating the accident and could not say whether alcohol or speed of travel might have played a role in the fatal crash.
"We're not releasing anything about the condition of the driver right now," Wiggs said. "It's still under investigation."