Note: This story has been updated from the original to include new information.
A pedestrian was killed, while a mother and her son were rescued from a steep embankment, during recent traffic-related incidents in Cherokee County.
Pedestrian killed on N.C. 141
About 6 a.m. Feb. 9, a person walking on N.C. 141 near Lower Vengeance Creek Road in Marble was struck and killed by a vehicle. The pedestrian was identified as Crystal Maria Johnson, 34, of Cherokee County.
The N.C. Highway Patrol said Johnson was walking north in the southbound lane of N.C. 141 about 90 minutes before sunrise when she was struck by a vehicle driven by Caleb Avery Hughes, 22, of Marble.
“This was a non-lighted portion of road, and the victim was wearing dark clothes,” said Trooper Rohn Silvers, a Highway Patrol spokesman. “The District Attorney’s Office will be reviewing for consideration whether charges apply.”
N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Robbie Ellison, who responded to the incident, said driver Caleb Hughes was not at fault in the incident and is not facing charges. Ellison said Johnson had been walking in and out of traffic and was at fault.
A mother of three daughters, Johnson was a 2006 graduate of Murphy High School, according to her obituary at Ivie Funeral Home. She worked with Personal Touch home health and also had been a barista and worked at local fast-food restaurants.
The Highway Patrol said she was a Murphy resident, although her obituary listed her as a resident of Marble. Memorial services for her were held Feb. 12.
Risky mountainside rescue
On Feb. 13, a vehicle occupied by a mother and her 17-year-old son left the roadway in the 20000 block of Joe Brown Highway in Unaka, resulting in a tricky, dangerous rescue.
“The forces involved in a crash of this magnitude are rarely survivable,” the Hiwassee Dam Volunteer Fire Department said on its Facebook page.
The Highway Patrol was working on providing details about how the crash happened as well as the names of the vehicle’s occupants.
The crash resulted in a multi-agency response participating in the complicated rescue. The Hiwassee Dam department, Unaka Volunteer Fire Department, Cherokee County Emergency Medical Services, Highway Patrol and Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the accident, according to the departments’ social media.
“The 911 center had received a cell phone call that a vehicle was over the embankment with persons trapped,” Hiwassee Dam Fire said.
It took enormous effort for responding agencies to locate the wreck. The accident occurred in an area with little or no cell phone service on Joe Brown Highway, about a mile from where the pavement ends.
The vehicle was “150 feet down the mountain from where they left the roadway, with no skid-marks,” said wrecker operator Mark Dickey, who responded to the accident and assisted with the rescue.
An extensive road search led to the discovery of the truck, which was lying on its side about 75 feet over the embankment but 150 feet from where it left the road, wedged into a cluster of trees on about a 70-80 degree slope. Firefighters reached the vehicle and found two people trapped inside.
“Both were alert but due to the damage to the vehicle, visual contact could not be established,” according to Hiwassee Dam Fire. “Rope rigging systems were established and personnel and equipment were transported down the slope to the vehicle.”
Access to the truck’s passenger side was about 12 feet above the ground and required ladders secured to the trees with rope to reach. Rescuers then climbed up to the vehicle and started work to free the trapped occupants.
Multiple “Jaws of Life” were used along with reciprocating saws, air hammers, come-alongs and jacks to open an access point for rescuers to reach the victims and extricate them through the opening using a rope haul, Hiwassee Dam Fire said.
The victims were lowered to the ground, secured into a rescue basket and raised to the road for transfer to EMS. Both victims were taken to a landing zone in nearby Unaka, then transferred to helicopters that took them to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.
“This was an extremely difficult and exhausting rescue,” Hiwassee Dam Fire said. The total time of extrication from start to finish was 1 hour and 42 minutes.
The two rescue helicopters faced their own challenge, landing in the dark at a small landing zone in the woods at Autumn Halls of Unaka No. 1, Unaka and Hiwassee Dam fire departments said.
“These men and women did an awesome job with this rescue to remove two injured people, one with broken neck with cab folded around them,” Dickey said. “So many miracles happened to save their lives. God was working through these men’s hands.”
The Grape Creek Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Station 16 managed the helicopter landing zone behind Autumn Halls, according Unaka Fire’s social media.