A 21-year-old Statesville woman died Thursday afternoon after a flatbed truck struck her car as she tried to turn left into a private driveway on N.C. Highway 105 in Watauga County. Veronica Grace Virtue was driving a 2014 Mitsubishi passenger car south on the highway near Dove Acres, between Boone and Foscoe, when the collision happened shortly before 3 p.m.
According to N.C. State Highway Patrol Master Trooper Jake Macchia, Virtue was attempting to cross into the driveway when a northbound flatbed truck struck her vehicle. She was taken to Watauga Medical Center, where she died, per Statesville Record & Landmark. The driver of the flatbed truck was not injured, Macchia said.
Troopers do not plan to file charges in connection with the crash, Macchia said. Their initial investigation determined that neither speed nor alcohol consumption played a role in the collision, according to WSOC-TV. Under North Carolina General Statute § 20-155, a driver turning left across oncoming lanes must yield to any approaching vehicle close enough to pose an immediate hazard, a legal standard cited by the City of Winston-Salem that helps explain why the truck driver was not cited.
Highway Shut Down for an Hour During Investigation
Emergency crews closed N.C. Highway 105 near Dove Acres in both directions for about an hour Thursday while troopers investigated the scene and cleared the wreckage, according to WataugaOnline.com. Virtue was a 2023 graduate of West Iredell High School in Statesville, the same paper's earlier reporting noted, offering a personal touchstone for Iredell County readers grieving her loss.
Watauga Medical Center, where Virtue was pronounced dead, is a 117-bed acute-care regional hospital operated by UNC Health Appalachian and serves as the primary emergency facility for Watauga County, according to the hospital system. It provides round-the-clock emergency care for crashes across the High Country.
A Corridor With a Long History of Deadly Crashes
Thursday's crash adds to a troubling pattern on N.C. Highway 105, which carries an average daily traffic volume exceeding 29,000 vehicles as the main arterial link between Boone and towns including Foscoe, Banner Elk and Grandfather Mountain, per data cited by Homes.com. Just months earlier, in May, a head-on collision near the Avery County line in Watauga County killed a 20-year-old Bakersville man after an oncoming pickup truck crossed the centerline, WataugaOnline.com reported.
Historical safety studies compiled by NCDOT recorded a crash rate of 422.18 crashes per 100 million vehicle miles along key sections of N.C. 105, nearly double the North Carolina statewide average of 262.59, according to The Appalachian. Those elevated numbers helped drive long-running state proposals for median installations and superstreet-style redesigns along the corridor.
Construction Already Underway to Address Turning Hazards
The North Carolina Department of Transportation is currently executing an $87.2 million corridor widening project along 4.5 miles of N.C. Highway 105 between Foscoe and Boone, a plan that includes adding a 23-foot raised grass median specifically designed to reduce cross-traffic turning hazards like the one involved in Thursday's crash, per NCDOT's own project materials. Separately, contractors from Wright Brothers Construction had just been completing Phase One of a $48.7 million bridge replacement over the Watauga River on the same highway, preparing to shift traffic onto a new span in late August.
Whether NCDOT's planned median will ultimately reshape driveway access points near Dove Acres, the site of Thursday's crash, remains an open question as the widening project moves forward. For now, Virtue's death adds another name to a stretch of highway that state data already flagged as far more dangerous than the average North Carolina road.
