Highway Patrol responds to 14 wrecks Monday afternoon
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on September 20, 2016 9:57 AM
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
First responders work in heavy rain to clear an overturned truck that blocked traffic along Wayne Memorial Drive between Hare Road and Saulston Road on Monday afternoon.
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
First responders work in a downpour to clear an overturned truck that stopped traffic along Wayne Memorial Drive between Hare Road and Saulston Road on Monday.
The North Carolina State Highway Patrol responded to 14 wrecks in roughly three hours and part of Wayne Memorial Drive was closed due to heavy rains and flooding in the area Monday afternoon.
Sgt. J.K. Whitley with the Highway Patrol said the road reopened about 9:30 p.m.
Wayne Memorial Drive was closed from Stoney Creek Church Road to Saulston Road. Traffic was rerouted down Stoney Creek Church Road to Daw Pate Road and back across to N.C. 111, Whitley said.
The wrecks Monday afternoon occurred mainly on the U.S. 70 Bypass, Interstate 795 and Wayne Memorial Drive, Whitley said. Several happened in the southern end of the county, and most of the wrecks were not major incidents, Whitley said.
Of the wrecks, the most severe happened on Wayne Memorial Drive between Hare Road and Saulston Road when a truck hydroplaned and flipped into a ditch, landing upside down.
Trooper Leroy Bunn, who responded to the wreck, said both the driver of the truck and the passenger sustained injuries and were trapped in the car for a period of time.
"Both the driver and passenger had to be extricated from the vehicle," Bunn said.
The wreck happened around 2 p.m. Monday when the driver, Kimberly Ann Miller, allegedly took a turn on Wayne Memorial Drive too quickly and hydroplaned.
"They were traveling south on Wayne Memorial Drive when the driver took a turn too quickly, hydroplaned going around the curve, hit the ditch, tried to correct it but overturned because they had already hit the ditch," Bunn said.
Miller and the passenger, Jennice Crawford, were both taken to Wayne Memorial Hospital, Bunn said.
Traffic going both directions was completely blocked for more than an hour.
Miller will be charged with exceeding a safe speed for the conditions, Bunn said.
Whitley said the 14 wrecks that happened in roughly three hours Monday afternoon were caused by a mixture of poor conditions and drivers speeding.
"It was a combination of heavy rain and nobody slowing down during the bad weather," Whitley said.