09/09/16 — Two dead after fatal wreck on Salem Church Road

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Two dead after fatal wreck on Salem Church Road

By Ethan Smith
Published in News on September 9, 2016 7:11 PM

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News-Argus/ETHAN SMITH

Highway Patrol officers investigate the scene of the accident.

Two people are dead after a head-on collision on Salem Church Road Friday evening around 5 p.m.

Grace Lane Edwards, 51, of Pikeville, and Jerry Lewis Davis, 58, of Goldsboro, died in the wreck, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

According to trooper C.S. Grainger, Edwards was driving a GMC Sierra truck when she made an abrupt maneuver into the opposite lane and collided with a Ford van being driven by Davis.

"We don't know why she crossed the center line into the other lane," Grainger said.

Grainger said the Ford van swerved to avoid the truck and hit the guardrail, and the truck struck the van, killing both Edwards and Davis.

There was nobody else in either vehicle at the time of the wreck.

Both Edwards and Davis were taken to the morgue at Wayne Memorial Hospital.

Speed was not a factor in the wreck, Grainger said.

State troopers left the scene of the wreck around 6:30  p.m. to notify family members of the victims.

Traffic on Salem Church Road was blocked and rerouted at Belfast Road and Fedelon Trail for more than two hours.

Goldsboro Fire Department, Belfast Fire Department, Nahunta Volunteer Fire Department, Wayne County EMS and Wayne NET responded to the scene.