Truck driver charged after 5 killed in crash on Interstate 95 in Wilson County
A tractor-trailer driver from Las Vegas was charged with causing a crash in a work zone on Interstate 95 that killed five people Wednesday afternoon.
The crash happened on northbound I-95 near mile marker 114.5 in Wilson County shortly before 1:30 p.m. and involved three tractor-trailers and two SUVs, according to the State Highway Patrol.
All of the occupants of the SUVs were killed. The three truck drivers were taken to the Wilson Medical Center with minor injuries.
Highway Patrol investigators say the crash began when Charles Christian Haskell failed to slow down as traffic was reduced to one lane where the N.C. Department of Transportation was doing some maintenance work.
Haskell’s truck full of orange juice plowed into the back of a Chevy Tahoe and a Toyota Rav-4 before hitting two other tractor-trailers, according to the Highway Patrol. Haskell, 51, was able to get out of his truck before it burned completely.
Two people in the Tahoe — William Carroll Tucker, 72, and Elizabeth Sharon Tucker, 66, of Hephzibah, Georgia — were killed, as were three people in the Rav-4: Edward Carroll Davis, 68, and Martha Warren Davis, 69, of Greenville, and Linda Warren Whitehurst, 80, of Robersonville.
When he was released from the hospital, Haskell was arrested and charged with five counts of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle. He was being held in the Wilson County Detention Center.
Investigators say while speed was a factor in the crash, they do not suspect that Haskell was impaired by drugs or alcohol.
The crash blocked the northbound lanes of I-95 for about nine hours Wednesday, said Sgt. Marcus Bethea of the State Highway Patrol.
Northbound traffic was detoured at Exit 107 onto U.S. 301 toward Wilson, while southbound traffic moved freely, Bethea said.
