LUMBERTON — Local law enforcement officials are urging motorists to pay attention when behind the wheel so they don’t become another wreck statistic.
Maj. Tommy Barnes, of the Lumberton Police Department, said distracted driving and texting while driving contribute to crashes in Lumberton. And if motorists would pay attention crashes in the city could decrease.
“We have, on average, 125 wrecks a month, every month,” Barnes said.
Those include crashes in parking lots and on Interstate 95 and city roadways.
During his 20 years as a member of the city’s police force, he has always seen “a lot of bad wrecks” happen in Lumberton, Barnes said.
Sgt. H.P. Locklear, of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, said that during his 17-year career serving in Robeson County distracted driving has always played a role in some accidents, with the use of smartphones making the issue worse.
“People need to pay attention to their driving and not their phone,” Barnes said.
However, the majority of crashes the Highway Patrol sees on I-95 are rear-end collisions, when one driver slows down or stops and the motorist behind them fails to reduce speed, Locklear said.
Ten wrecks took place inside Lumberton on Friday. Two occurred on the interstate and sent eight people to the hospital.
Both I-95 crashes were rear-end collisions. Factors related to distracted driving were not listed on the crash reports.
No charges were issued in the wrecks as of Monday afternoon, Barnes said.
Stephanie Gray Morgan, of Watts Road in Lumberton; and Felix Hernandez; Felix Hernandez Jr.; Cecilio Hernandez and Luis Miguel Veronica Hernandez, all of Darrell Drive in Pembroke; were hospitalized Friday after a wreck near exit 22.
The crash occurred about 7:48 a.m. after Morgan’s 2006 Ford 500 passenger car collided with the rear of the Freightliner Cascadia tractor-trailer operated by Benjamin Pavlovich Yavny, of Mount Clinton Pike in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and the right side of Felix Hernandez’s vehicle, according to a Lumberton Police Department crash report submitted by Officer BC Lewis.
Yavny and Hernandez were stopped in traffic because northbound lanes were blocked after a traffic collision occurred farther north on I-95. Hernandez told police he saw Morgan’s vehicle approaching quickly before his vehicle was struck.
Morgan, Hernandez and Hernandez’s passengers were taken to UNC Health Southeastern’s medical center. No updates on their conditions were available Monday afternoon. Yavny was not taken to the hospital.
Forty-eight minutes earlier, between mile markers 22 and 24, another crash occurred that sent three people to the hospital.
Takecia Shariah Manning Hurtado, of Spruce Drive in Fayetteville; Ashley Sierra Bryant and David Ray Bryant, of Deep Branch Road in Lumberton, were taken by EMS to UNC Health Southeastern’s medical center after the crash.
Hurtado was driving a 2013 Hyundai Sonata in the left lane of I-95 North and Ashley Bryant’s 2019 Chevrolet Suburban was on the shoulder of the interstate. Bryant told crash investigators she was picking up her husband, whose vehicle had a flat tire, according to the crash report.
Bryant merged into the right lane and saw Hurtado merging into the lane behind her, according to the crash report. Bryant then began traveling off the road to the right to avoid being struck, but was hit from behind. The Suburban ran off the road to the right after impact and the Hyundai Sonata “rolled over and came to rest at the wood line.”
Hurtado was taken by EMS to the helipad, where she was flown to an undisclosed facility. Bryant and her husband, David Ray Bryant, were taken by EMS to UNC Health Southeastern for treatment of injuries. No updates were available Monday.
