A woman suspected of driving while impaired crashed her car into the front of a soup dumpling restaurant near North Carolina State University early Monday morning, sending her to the hospital and leaving the building with what police describe as superficial damage. The crash happened around 1 a.m. on Hillsborough Street, where the driver failed to navigate one of the corridor's roundabouts before her car left the roadway and struck the building.
The vehicle smashed into the front of Nan Xiang Express, a soup dumpling restaurant at 3000 Hillsborough St., according to WRAL. The woman driving the car is suspected of DWI and was taken to a local hospital, though she is expected to be okay, the station reported. Police have said the driver failed to follow the roundabout correctly, which sent her car off the street and into the building.
A Fast-Casual Newcomer to the NC State Corridor
Nan Xiang Express sits on the ground level of Uncommon Raleigh, a multi-story student apartment complex that opened directly adjacent to NC State, and the restaurant itself only opened in January. The brand is a fast-casual offshoot of the original Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao in Flushing, Queens, which held a Michelin Guide recommendation for nine consecutive years starting in 2007, according to Nan Xiang Express. The Raleigh location expanded the Shanghainese soup dumpling chain's footprint into North Carolina, catering to NC State students and neighborhood residents alike.
What North Carolina Law Says About DWI Charges
Under North Carolina General Statutes § 20-138.1, driving while impaired is a misdemeanor committed when someone operates a vehicle on a public street with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher, or while under the appreciable influence of an impairing substance. The state's implied consent laws also carry immediate administrative consequences: a driver charged with DWI faces a 30-day civil license revocation upon arrest and, if convicted, a mandatory one-year revocation with strict alcohol limits imposed before the license can be restored, per the UNC School of Government.
Most DWI convictions in North Carolina do not result in jail time. According to the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission's FY 2024 statistical report, 58% of the state's 24,694 DWI convictions that year resulted in Level 5 sentences, the lowest severity tier, and 94% of offenders received probation rather than an active prison sentence. Statewide, the stakes of impaired driving remain steep regardless of individual sentencing outcomes — NC Vision Zero, citing North Carolina Department of Transportation crash data, reported that 361 people were killed and 7,227 were injured in alcohol-impaired driver crashes across the state in 2024.
Roundabouts Built to Slow a Once-Dangerous Corridor
Hillsborough Street's roundabout network exists because the corridor used to be considerably more dangerous. The City of Raleigh and engineering firm Kimley-Horn redesigned the street in two major phases, swapping traditional traffic signals for five roundabouts meant to slow vehicles and improve pedestrian access along the university corridor. A Project for Public Spaces case study found that rightsizing Hillsborough Street into a two-lane street with roundabouts cut overall vehicle crashes by 23% while nearly doubling sidewalk miles.
Even with those safety gains, roundabouts have not been foolproof for every driver who encounters them. Back in June 2012, following more than 100 crashes reported by Raleigh police over a 20-month span, the city converted a multi-lane roundabout near Pullen Road into a single lane specifically to cut down on driver confusion and low-speed collisions, as Technician reported at the time. Monday's crash suggests that navigating the corridor's roundabouts can still trip up drivers, particularly those who are impaired.
The corridor has seen other serious safety incidents in recent months. Hoodline reported in a fatal train strike near Oakdale that a pedestrian was struck and killed by a train near Hillsborough Street and Oakdale Drive in May, underscoring how the heavily trafficked, multi-modal street carries risk for pedestrians, students, and drivers alike.
For now, the crash has left Nan Xiang Express with superficial damage to its building rather than a full closure, and the driver is expected to recover from her injuries. Questions remain about her formal identification, her blood alcohol concentration or toxicology results, and whether any repairs will force a temporary pause in the restaurant's operations.
