Driver, 37, dies in one-car accident
By Ty Johnson
Published in News on April 9, 2012 1:46 PM
A 37-year-old Mount Olive man died when the car he was driving skidded off the road and into a tree in northern Duplin County early Sunday morning.
Robert Clay Walker was driving along Beautancus Road about seven miles southeast of Mount Olive when the accident occurred about 12:30 a.m.
Trooper D.W. Morgan of the Duplin County post of the N.C. Highway Patrol said this morning that speed and alcohol were factors in the accident.
Morgan said it appeared Walker, who was estimated to be traveling about 80 mph, ran off the right side of the road and overcorrected, sending his Nissan car across the road where the driver's side door struck a tree with the car nearly perpendicular to the highway. Walker was not wearing a seat belt at the time and was pronounced dead on the scene when Trooper C.L. Tripp arrived.
All of the airbags deployed within the car, but Morgan said the impact was so severe that the car was crumpled almost to the vehicle's center console. The car was found embedded into the tree.
The estimated rate of speed at impact was placed at about 60 mph. The speed limit along that section of road is 55 mph.
Walker's blood alcohol content at the time of the crash is unknown although Morgan said the medical examiner performed a toxicology report. The results from that report will be known sometime in the next month.