Murphy – A flurry of traffic incidents in Cherokee County have claimed a life, left a driver trapped in a thick stand of mature bamboo, resulted in the discovery of a suspected suicide and kept state troopers criss-crossing the county responding to new calls.
Grant Darby Smith, 52, of Murphy, was killed when he lost control of his vehicle on Hedden Road near Vandora Suits Road at 8:28 p.m. July 13.
N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Dwayne Neal said Smith was driving at about 70 mph eastbound on Hedden Road when his vehicle, a 2011 Jeep Cherokee, left the road, traveled another
560 feet and crashed into a tree. Smith was alone in the vehicle and already dead when emergency responders arrived.
Conditions were dry and clear just before sunset. Neal said it is unknown whether drugs or alcohol were involved in the crash.
On July 15, construction workers on the Blairsville Highway project stumbled across the victim of an apparent suicide. No further details were released.
At 6:25 p.m. July 16, a pickup traveling at high speed drifted from its lane and rear-ended a tractor-trailer on U.S. 64 about a mile east of the Tennessee line. The pickup continued off of the highway, threading its way between a guard rail and a tree before coming to rest in a thick stand of mature bamboo.
Rescuers needed chainsaws to clear a path to the vehicle, then heavy equipment to extricate the driver, who was not identified. The driver was described as a Tennessee resident. He was airlifted from the scene to a Tennessee hospital.
Alcohol was a contributing factor, officials said.