A southbound Nissan left Shady Lane Road in Carthage just before 8 p.m. Thursday, struck a large tree at Summer Hill Church Road and caught fire with its driver still inside.
The male passenger got out, freed the unconscious driver and dragged her across the road before the car was fully engulfed, according to Sandhills Sentinel. By the time the first fire engine arrived, flames had taken the vehicle.
Both occupants were taken to Moore Regional Hospital in what appeared to be stable condition. The driver had woken up before she was transported from the scene. The report did not identify either occupant or say why the Nissan left the road.
North Carolina law requires the appropriate law-enforcement agency to investigate a reportable crash and requires crash data to include its cause and the conditions at the time. Law-enforcement crash reports are public records, and NCDOT says people can request a specific report or crash data for an intersection or stretch of road. The state statute and NCDOT’s crash-data guidance provide a route to seek more detail about the investigation.
The Carthage fire is part of a wider, though declining, national toll: an estimated 178,500 fires involving highway vehicles in 2024 caused 450 civilian deaths and 850 injuries. The National Fire Protection Association’s 2024 fire-loss estimates put highway vehicle fires 61% below their 1980 level, while deaths from those fires were down 31%. The figures cover highway vehicle fires broadly, not just fires following crashes.
Shady Lane Road was shut down while firefighters put out the fire and authorities investigated. Carthage Fire Department, Moore County EMS, the Moore County Sheriff's Office, Moore County Public Safety and the N.C. Highway Patrol all responded.
