Drag racing a possible cause of head-on crash that killed 6-year-old, NC troopers say
A 6-year-old boy died after another vehicle traveling “close to 100 mph” on a North Carolina highway collided head-on with the car he was riding in Saturday night, state troopers said.
The collision happened around 9:28 p.m. on Highway U.S. 74 near Sparrow Springs Road, just outside of Bessemer City in Gaston County, Trooper Ray Pierce told the Observer on Monday.
Pierce could not confirm whether the speeding vehicle was drag racing, but multiple witnesses told the Highway Patrol they saw the 2013 Audi traveling east “at an extremely high rate of speed” alongside a 2016 Dodge Charger, he said. The posted speed limit on the highway is 55 mph.
The two vehicles came into contact with each other near Sparrow Springs Road, causing the Audi to lose control, cross a grass median and enter the westbound lanes, where it hit a 2016 Nissan, Pierce said.
The boy and the Audi driver were taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, Pierce said. The boy died early Sunday morning, Pierce said.
The Audi driver remains in critical condition at the hospital.
The Nissan driver, who Pierce identified as the boy’s “father figure,” suffered minor injuries and was released from the hospital Sunday night, the trooper said.
The boy and the Nissan driver shared no blood relation, but Pierce called the driver the child’s “father figure.”
Pierce did not identify the drivers involved in the collision.
Another driver stopped and helped the Audi driver get out of their vehicle after it caught fire, Pierce said.
Interviews are being conducted to determine if the Audi and Dodge drivers were “spontaneously drag racing,” which Pierce said is a plausible scenario.
“We don’t know 100% for sure, so we haven’t said that they were drag racing yet,” he said. “We don’t want to pass judgment.”
Pierce said charges will be forthcoming once troopers have conferred with the Gaston County District Attorney’s Office.
Extreme speeding
Residents near the scene of Saturday’s crash say they often hear and see vehicles speeding down U.S. 74.
“I do hear later at night, I do hear more motorcycles and trucks, and stuff like that racing,” Zachary Brown told Observer news partner WBTV.
An investigation published earlier this month by The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer in Raleigh found that extreme speeding — where drivers fly 20, 30, even 50 mph over the speed limit — has increased dramatically in North Carolina. Law enforcement officers have clocked some drivers going nearly 200 mph.
Speed-related crashes have claimed the lives of more than 1,800 people in the state over the past five years.
Fatal head-on collision last week
The Gaston County incident is the second one in which a child died after a head-on collision in the Charlotte area in the past week.
Allison Faith Presley, 20, of Indian Trail and her 3-year-old son, Aiden, were killed when their SUV crossed into oncoming traffic on state highway N.C. 16 in Lincoln County and collided head-on with a pickup truck early Wednesday, the Observer previously reported. The crash also injured two other people.
Presley may have fallen asleep while driving, troopers said. All occupants were wearing seat belts. Aiden was in a car seat, but troopers say it was not properly installed.
