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Woman hospitalized after wreck on U.S. 70
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A Faison woman was airlifted to Pitt County Memorial Hospital Tuesday morning after she clipped a car driven by a Kinston man travelling east on U.S. 70 and then flipped into the woods off the right shoulder.
N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Bud Radford said at approximately 10:15 a.m., Emma Stevens, 49, of 8890 Faison Hwy hit Maurice Nelson, 47, of 1609 George Ave., while driving her late model GMC Envoy.
Radford said she hit Nelson after misjudging her proximity to, and speed of, his 1988 Ford F-150.
Nelson had his four-way flashers on and was heading towards Kinston in the right lane of the highway at a slow speed because he was having mechanical problems with his truck.
“I was trying to get my truck home because my fuel intake has been acting funny and sputtering,” Nelson said. “I saw a woman in a SUV approach me in my rear view mirror and thought she was going to pass me or slow down.”
Radford said Stevens approached Nelson at a faster pace, miscalculated his speed, and hit the rear passenger side of his car with the driver side of hers.
“At the last second, she swerved and lost control of her vehicle,” Radford said.
Steven’s vehicle came to rest on its passenger side in a creek bed between several trees about two miles outside of La Grange in the Little Baltimore area.
“When she went right, that was it,” Nelson said.
Most windows of her vehicle were shattered and the front tires were popped off. Nelson’s truck endured some damage on the rear passenger side.
“The impact scared me, but my main concern was the woman,” he said. “I was shaken up, but my brain was not working on me. It was focused on the well-being of the woman in the ditch.”
Nelson said he pulled onto the right shoulder and went to see if Stevens was OK. He said she was conscious.
“I pulled over and got out to check on her, but there was only so much I could do,” he said. “I did not want to climb on the vehicle and try to get her out because she could be seriously injured or the car could be in danger of shifting.”
A witness of the accident, unidentified by Radford, also came up to the accident and started talking to Stevens to keep her calm.
The North Lenoir Fire Department, La Grange Fire Department and Lenoir County EMS responded to the scene to help.
Rescuers pulled Stevens out through the roof of her vehicle at about 11 a.m. using an extrication tool. Emergency workers unattached the windshield frame from the hood and bent it back over the roof to get to Stevens.
“She was alert and talking, but the rescue workers were concerned that there she may have had internal injuries and felt she needed to be transported to the hospital,” Radford said.
The Pitt County Memorial Hospital EastCare helicopter was called in to transport Stevens.
Both lanes of U.S. 70 Eastbound were shut down for approximately 45 minutes as the rescue helicopter landed.
Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office deputies detoured traffic between Ken’s Grill and Foss Auto Salvage using Norbert Hill Road. The stretch reopened at 11:30 a.m.
Radford said the blame is most likely to be on Stevens, as Nelson took the appropriate measures to warn oncoming traffic of his situation.
“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Radford said. “He was doing what he was supposed to with using the right hand lane and his flashers to travel slowly.”
