Mount Olive teen killed in wreck Monday
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on January 31, 2017 8:32 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
A 2016 Chevy Impala sits in the median of U.S. Highway 117, north of the N.C. Highway 55 exit after Monday night's fatal wreck. Highway Patrol troopers said the driver of the car, Ryan James, 16, of Dudley, was traveling east on Baker Chapel Church Road at a high speed and ran off of the road and jumped a ditch. The car hit a light pole then flipped several times and came to a rest in the median. James and two passengers were taken to Wayne Memorial Hospital. Matthew Hunter Brickhouse, 16, later died of his injuries.
A single-car wreck near Mount Olive late Monday night killed one teen and injured two others.
The wreck took place at about 8:45 p.m. and shut down the southbound lane of U.S. 117 at Country Club Road for hours.
Right-rear passenger Matthew Hunter Brickhouse, 16, of Mount Olive, died several hours after the crash at Wayne Memorial Hospital, said First Sgt. Jerry Burton, with the N.C. State Highway Patrol.
Trooper J.S. Smith said at the scene that 16-year-old Ryan James, of Dudley, was driving a 2016 Chevrolet Impala at a high rate of speed heading east down Baker Chapel Church Road when he came to the end of the road, hit a ditch and sent the car flying through a telephone pole. The car then flipped several times across U.S. 117 before coming to rest in the median.
James had two passengers in the car, including Brickhouse. All three occupants of the car had their seat belts on, Smith said.
The three teenagers were taken to Wayne Memorial Hospital.
The crash caused a power line to fall across the highway. Northbound traffic on U.S. 117 was reduced to one lane, and southbound traffic was rerouted toward U.S. 117 Alternate at Country Club Road.
Smith said there were two witnesses to the wreck that saw the car flip across the highway.
He said he did not know why James was driving so fast, and he could not release an exact speed on scene Monday night.
After striking the ditch off of Baker Chapel Church Road, the car landed exactly 200 feet away in the median of the highway, Smith said.
Charges are pending against James.
"The driver was taken to the hospital, treated and released," Burton said. "I believe the right-front passenger was treated and released, also."
---- Staff writer Brandon Davis contributed to this report