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Truck plunges off highway; kills one, injures seven
By Carey Phillips
One person was killed and seven injured last Thursday morning when a box truck loaded with migrant workers from Hendersonville ran off U.S. 23-74 east of Sylva and plunged 45 feet down an embankment.
The accident occurred around 7:50 a.m. between Racking Cove Road and Blanton Branch.
Trooper Steve Allred of the N.C. Highway Patrol said 37-year-old Raul Carbajal died at the scene. He was the only occupant of the truck who was not ejected.
Emergency personnel treat some of the injured following an accident last Thursday morning (Aug, 12) on U.S. 23-74 east of Sylva. Raul Carbajal, a passenger in a box truck transporting eight migrant workers from Henderson County to Macon County died at the scene. Seven people were injured with three of those still patients at Mission Hospitals in Asheville as of Tuesday morning (Aug. 17). The driver, Armando Sanchez Soto, was charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle. – Photo courtesy of Jackson County Sheriff’s Office
Carbajal was one of three people in the front of the truck while the other five occupants were in the back, which was enclosed, Allred said.
The trooper said the westbound vehicle was being driven by 44-year-old Armando Sanchez Soto and was traveling from Henderson County to a Macon County farm. The truck crossed the median, went through a guard rail and over the 45-foot embankment.
Soto was charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle, Allred said.
The seven injured were taken to Harris Regional Hospital; three were subsequently transferred to Mission Hospitals in Asheville. They were Soto, Jose Carlos Sanchez, age unknown, and Orlando Lopez, 25.
As of Tuesday morning, Mission’s condition report listed Sanchez as serious, Lopez as fair and Soto as good.
Others transported to Harris Regional were: Diego Jimenez, 23; Adan Prujillo, 30; Antonio Melgar, 35; and Sander Carillo, 22. Jimenez and Carillo were treated and released, according to hospital spokesman Brian Thomas.
Prujillo and Melgar were admitted to the hospital with Prujillo released over the weekend and Melgar expected to be released Tuesday afternoon, according to Thomas.
Allred was able to talk to Soto for the first Friday.
“He remembers picking the men up at a motel in Hendersonville, but that’s the last thing he remembers,” said Allred, who added rain may have been a factor in the accident.
With so many patients coming to the emergency room, Harris Regional called a “Code Delta” to indicate a disaster response, according to Thomas.
“Extra staff reported to the hospital,” he said. “The ER was quite busy for a while, but everyone pitched in. We had a lot of people who are bilingual come in as translators.”
All four WestCare ambulances were sent to the scene to transport patients, according to Thomas.
Emergency responders said paramedics had to walk around 100 yards to the accident site and carry the patients back to the ambulances. Even so, all patients arrived at the hospital within 45 minutes of the time the call was received, Thomas said.
Ambulances from Haywood and Swain counties were placed on stand-by to cover Jackson County in case any more calls were received, according to Thomas.
“It’s never a good situation, but the way the EMS, physicians, nurses and those in other disciplines worked together, they were able to make the best of it,” he said.
Members of the Sylva Fire Department and Jackson County Rescue Squad responded, as did the Balsam Fire Department. Law enforcement agencies on the scene included the Highway Patrol and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
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