A driver is dead after a car ran off the road near Pearces Road in Franklin County Saturday night, flipped into a ravine, and threw the driver from the vehicle before a second car struck them. The crash happened around 9 p.m. near NC 98, and the driver died at the scene.
According to WRAL, the car left the roadway, hit a tree, and flipped before coming to rest in a ravine. The driver was ejected during the crash and was then hit by another vehicle, the outlet reported. No charges have been filed in connection with the crash as of Sunday morning.
The North Carolina State Highway Patrol is investigating, per the same report. Troop C holds primary jurisdiction over serious and fatal crashes on state highways in rural Franklin County, and troopers there typically conduct crash reconstructions to determine speed, restraint use and the sequence of impacts, as outlined in prior coverage of a fatal crash on Walter Grissom Road earlier this year.
A Corridor With a History of Fatal Wrecks
This is not the first deadly crash along NC 98 in Franklin County this year. In August, a 17-year-old driver was killed and five teenage passengers were hurt when their vehicle struck a tree off the same route, a crash Hoodline covered at the time. The following month, a school bus hit a culvert near Louisburg, injuring 12 students.
NC 98 functions as a major rural-to-suburban arterial linking Franklin County to Wake County and the Research Triangle, and it has previously been the subject of a joint corridor study by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and Triangle West TPO aimed at evaluating speed controls and safety hazards. Outside town boundaries, the rural two-lane route defaults to a 55 mph speed limit.
Why Ejections Turn So Often Deadly
Federal Highway Administration safety research has found that fixed-object impacts with trees along rural two-lane highways are among the deadliest types of single-vehicle run-off-road crashes, prompting traffic engineers nationally to push for wider roadside clear zones, rumble strips and curve warning signs. Pearces Road itself has long been flagged for upgrades: Franklin County's Comprehensive Transportation Plan has called for widening the road from a narrow 19-foot two-lane cross-section to a 24-foot roadway with wider shoulders to accommodate growth in the area.
Whether the driver in Saturday's crash was belted has not been disclosed.
Open Questions and Legal Obligations
Investigators have not released the identity of the driver, and it remains unclear whether the driver of the second vehicle that struck them stayed at the scene.
Separately, North Carolina law bars the use of seat belt non-use as evidence in civil personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits, meaning a victim's restraint status cannot be used by insurers or defense attorneys to reduce liability in court, even though front-seat seat belt violations themselves can draw a $25.50 fine plus court costs under state law.
The crash adds to a troubling statewide pattern. North Carolina's 2024 Traffic Crash Facts report recorded 1,732 traffic deaths statewide, a 2.7% rise from 2023, with excessive speed contributing to more than a fifth of all fatal collisions. Federal data from 2020 through 2024 shows North Carolina averaging 14.6 traffic deaths per 100,000 residents annually, above the national rate of 12.1, with rural two-lane state roads like NC 98 posting especially high per-capita fatal crash rates.
