18-year-old dies in wreck on N.C. 55
By Casey Mozingo
Published in News on December 30, 2017 5:15 PM
An 18-year-old man died as a result of a wreck on N.C. 55 near Pineview Cemetery Road this morning, according the N.C. State Highway Patrol.
Damian Chase Wooldridge, of Newton Grove, was pronounced dead at the scene of a wreck that happened just before 7:45 a.m.
Investigators said he was on the way to work at Butterball LLC.
Trooper Nolan Sanders said that Wooldridge was driving his Chrysler passenger car west on N.C. 55 in the curve near Williams Millpond when he ran off the road to the right, overcorrected and slid sideways into a tractor-trailer hauling grain.
As a result of the impact Wooldridge was ejected from the car.
Michael Ray Stevens, 57, of La Grange, who was driving the tractor-trailer, was traveling east, and drove off the roadway where his truck caught on fire after the collision.
The N.C. Department of Transportation closed down the roadway until the scene could be cleared.
There will be no citations issued following the wreck, Sanders said.