A 19-year-old driver died Sunday afternoon after his car slammed into a bridge pillar on eastbound Interstate 587 near Farmville and caught fire, and while emergency crews worked the wreckage, a second driver barreled into a stationary fire engine blocking the highway, ejecting a firefighter from the vehicle. The chaotic sequence turned a single fatal crash into a two-part emergency along the Pitt County corridor, with troopers now investigating both the deadly wreck and the secondary collision that followed it.
North Carolina State Highway Patrol troopers responded around 1:15 p.m. on September 6 to the crash on eastbound I-587 at the N.C. 121 overpass, according to WCTI. Investigators say a 2015 Volkswagen Jetta, traveling eastbound at a high rate of speed, veered off the left side of the highway and struck a bridge pillar supporting the N.C. 121 overpass. The car caught fire after the impact, and the driver — identified as Adriano James Salas, 19, of Wake Forest — was pronounced dead at the scene. Troopers determined that excessive speed was a contributing factor in the crash, and Salas was the vehicle's sole occupant.
Second Driver Strikes Fire Engine During Lane Closures
The crash prompted an emergency response and closures along I-587, and it was during that response that a second, unrelated collision unfolded. While crews were attending to the fatal wreck, a driver failed to comply with roadway closure warnings and struck a stationary fire engine, ejecting a firefighter from the truck, according to the Outer Banks Voice. The ejected firefighter was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver who hit the fire engine was seriously injured and has been charged by the state Highway Patrol with Driving While Impaired and Reckless Driving, per the same outlet. Both the injured firefighter and the driver were transported to ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville, which operates the only Level I Trauma Center in North Carolina east of Raleigh and serves 29 counties across the eastern part of the state, as Hoodline has previously reported.
What North Carolina's Move Over Law Requires
Under North Carolina General Statute § 20-157, drivers approaching stopped emergency vehicles with flashing lights are legally required to change lanes or slow down. Violations that cause injury or property damage are classified as Class 1 misdemeanors carrying fines, license points, and potential jail time, according to the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin. State penalties were increased to protect first responders working along highway shoulders.
The I-587 crash was one of several fatal traffic incidents state troopers reported across Eastern North Carolina over Labor Day weekend, including a single-vehicle medical transport ambulance rollover on N.C. 11 in Martin County that killed a 76-year-old patient, the Outer Banks Voice reported.
A Newer Interstate With a Troubling Crash History
Interstate 587 is a relatively new addition to the state's highway system. It was officially established and signed in June 2022 following $22.5 million in NCDOT road widening and resurfacing projects along the former U.S. 264 route, bringing direct interstate access to Greenville and Pitt County for the first time, according to Invest Greenville. Before that designation, Greenville was one of the largest U.S. cities without direct interstate connectivity.
The 37-mile corridor has already seen severe crashes since its upgrade. In July, Hoodline reported on a deadly wrong-way crash near Wilson, in which a pickup truck made a U-turn and traveled the wrong way before a head-on collision killed two people near mile marker 31 in Wilson County.
Speed Remains a Leading Factor in Fatal Crashes
Statewide, excessive speed was a contributing factor in 378 traffic deaths across North Carolina in 2024, with 62% of vehicles in fatal speed-related crashes exceeding the posted limit by more than 10 mph, according to NCDOT traffic safety data. Weekend travel accounts for 39% of all speed-related traffic fatalities in the state, though only 7% of North Carolina's speed-related deaths occur on interstate highways specifically, the same data shows.
Young adult drivers account for 27.2% of all reported motor vehicle crashes in North Carolina, representing the highest involvement rate of any age demographic, according to data compiled by the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin. Investigators have not said whether mechanical failure or distraction played any role alongside speed in Salas's crash, and the firefighter's ongoing medical status has not been publicly updated.
