|
No serious injuries reported from series of weekend wrecks
By Lynn Hotaling
A couple of weekend wrecks tied up traffic near the N.C. 107/N.C. 281 intersection, and two victims were airlifted to Asheville following a Saturday night one-vehicle crash on Cullowhee Mountain.
In the first of the Tuckasegee incidents, a dump truck struck a tree Friday afternoon (March 2), and traffic was backed up for several hours until a large enough wrecker could be found to move the vehicle, according to Sgt. Paul Campbell of the N.C. Highway Patrol.
Driver Ernest Richard Owen of Brevard ran off the road around 2 p.m., and Campbell said traffic was affected until around 7 p.m.
The second incident near that intersection occurred around 7 p.m. Saturday (March 3) when a 1996 Lexus driven by 16-year-old Kirstyn Coggins of Sylva pulled out of Jimmy’s Mini-Mart into the path of a northbound (toward Sylva) 2004 Ford F-350 pickup pulling a boat, Campbell said. The truck’s driver was Justin Harrell, 23, of Franklin. Coggins was charged with failure to yield right of way, according to Trooper Denny Wood, who investigated the crash. Both Coggins and her passenger, 16-year-old Stacy Keever, suffered minor cuts and bruises and were treated and released at Harris Regional Hospital, Wood said.
A Saturday night one-vehicle accident on Cullowhee Mountain Road resulted in head injuries to both the driver, Allison Bradley, 27, and her husband, Brian Bradley, 32, of Cullowhee, Wood said. Allison Bradley, who was driving a 2005 Ford sport utility vehicle around 11 p.m., lost control of the SUV near Whiterock Creek Road and went down an embankment, Wood said. The two were extricated from the vehicle by the Jackson County Rescue Squad and transported to the Recreation Center by WestCare EMS, Wood said, and then taken by helicopter to Mission Hospitals in Asheville.
According to Wood, both were back home Sunday night and doing well.
|
