A man was killed Thursday night when the moped he was driving was struck head-on by another vehicle.
Burt Ford Reed, 56, was driving east on NC 268 near the intersection with Bray Ford Road when he was struck head-on by a Ford Windstar minivan driven by Britt Lee King, 44, who was traveling west on NC 268, according to a report from the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
According to that report, King had swerved across the yellow line into the oncoming traffic to avoid a truck which had stopped, waiting to turn left onto Bray Ford Road.
“Mr. King did not realize the truck was stopped in front of him, and swerved left of center on the double yellow line to avoid the stopped truck,” the statement read.
According to John Shelton, Surry County EMS director and county medical examiner, the call came into his office at 9:23 p.m. Reed was pronounced dead at the scene shortly thereafter.
It was not clear from the Highway Patrol report if charges had been filed. The case remains under investigation. It was not immediately clear where the victim, or the other driver, were from.
Truck Wreck
In an unrelated incident, a Tyson Food truck carrying a load of live chickens bound for a processing plant overturned early Thursday morning on NC 268 when several tires of the truck rode off of the highway onto the soft shoulder of the road.
The wreck and subsequent clean-up closed a long section of the highway for most of the day Thursday.
According to John Shelton, Surry County EMS director, the single-vehicle wreck occurred at 6:30 a.m., resulting in the driver, whose name was not immediately available, being transported to the hospital in critical but stable condition.
The wreck also left a mess, with both dead and live chickens strewn throughout the area around the wreck. That forced the closure of the road, from Copeland School Road to Rockford Road. Shelton said about mid-day that he anticipated the highway would remain closed at least until 4 p.m.
Shelton said officials with Tyson were on the scene quickly to assess the damage and begin clean-up, as were officials from the state department of agriculture, there to oversee the operation.
Shelton said the North Carolina Highway Patrol, officials from his office, and the South Surry Fire Department were on hand. There were no additional injuries.
No helicopter crash
Shelton also said that, contrary to what was feared for a short time on Wednesday, there was no helicopter crash in Surry County.
He said his office did receive a report of a possible crash, so he immediately went to the Surry County-Mount Airy airport to set up a command center to coordinate search efforts.
“Luckily we had a plane up in the area, we were able to find the helicopter and learned it was just an ag helicopter, going up and down.”
He explained that such aircraft are often used for field spraying operations, and they often make quick drops toward land. To someone who may not understand what’s going on, he said it would appear the helicopter is falling from the sky.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com