Marble – A driver blamed in a two-vehicle wreck that left six people injured on Dec. 4 was blinded by sunlight when he turned into the path of an oncoming utility truck, according to the N.C. Highway Patrol.
“The sun was in his eyes and he couldn’t see,” Trooper Robert Ellison said.
The driver was identified as Harold Crisp, 72, of Andrews. He suffered minor injuries in the crash. Ellison said charges were pending against Crisp because he failed to make a safe turn, causing the accident.
Six people were injured, three seriously, when a utility truck collided with a passenger car that turned into the truck’s path near the Cherokee County solid waste disposal site. The names of most crash victims were not released.
The crash happened at about 4:37 p.m. that day. A Graham County-based Sumter Utilities truck with three aboard was headed east on U.S. 19, while a passenger car with two passengers and driven by Crisp was making a turn from westbound U.S. 19 at the entrance to the landfill.
The truck had just crested a hill and was headed downhill and unable to stop due to its speed and mass. It collided with the passenger car at the landfill entrance on the highway.
Crisp told Ellison that he was blinded by the setting sun and did not see the oncoming truck. Witnesses said Crisp did not stop before making the turn.
The truck hit the front passenger corner of the car, spun around and rolled over before coming to rest at the bottom of a shallow embankment. The passenger car rolled over and came to rest on its side in the eastbound passing lane of U.S. 19.
Victims in both vehicles required extrication by Valleytown Fire & Rescue. Two occupants of the car and one from the truck were taken to Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital in Murphy. Two from the truck and one from the car were airlifted to hospitals in Georgia and Tennessee.
The eastbound lanes were blocked for several hours while the wreckage was removed. Eastbound traffic was detoured to IOI Road to Airport Road.
A guardrail was also damaged and a roadside memorial for an earlier fatal crash at the location was in the path of the crashing truck. A Highway Patrol investigation is in progress.
Ellison said Valleytown Fire & Rescue did an excellent job rescuing the trapped accident victims.