Wrecks send one to hospital, delay traffic
By From staff reports
Published in News on October 7, 2016 10:02 AM
Two separate wrecks involving five cars happened at the same time Thursday morning on U.S. 117 near Arrington Bridge Road, sending one person to the hospital and reducing traffic to one lane for more than an hour.
In the first wreck, Tana Herring, of Beautancus Road, Mount Olive, allegedly rear-ended Jayne Knowles, of Williamson Road, Mount Olive, when Knowles hit her brakes when she saw brake lights of another car in front of her.
Knowles did not hit the car in front of her, but that car -- a Honda Civic driven by Kenny Velasquez, of New York -- did collide with another car and cause a three car pile-up, according to North Carolina Highway Patrolman A.J. Hostinsky.
Velasquez reportedly rear-ended a Toyota Corolla driven by Talaya Lassiter of Pioneer Drive, LaGrange, and caused her car to lurch forward into a Chevrolet Trailblazer driven by David Elkin of John Moore Lane, Faison.
Lassiter was taken to the hospital.
Herring's vehicle, a Chevrolet Tahoe, sustained significant damage as a result of hitting the trailer hitch on the back of Knowles' Ford Expedition.
The front bumper of Herring's Tahoe was knocked in and bent inward, and oil was leaking from the car onto the highway.
The wreck, which happened just after 7 a.m. Thursday, took more than an hour to clear off the highway. Hostinsky said Velasquez and Herring were both cited for failure to reduce speed.