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A GMC Envoy was traveling more than twice the posted speed limit when it crashed into a tree in Spencer on Jan. 18, killing six people, including three children.
Police say an onboard computer that tracks crash data showed the SUV’s speed as 67 mph near the intersection of 11th Street and South Rowan Avenue – a residential area where the speed limit is 30 mph, according to Police Chief Michael James.
When the SUV struck the tree, it was going 57 mph.
James said most of the vehicle’s occupants, including the children, weren’t properly restrained.
“It appears that only the front right passenger was wearing a seat belt,” James said. “Some of them were even behind seats where it was impossible to be restrained.”
Ten-year-old Charles Patrick, who slammed through a back window and landed on the street, but survived with a busted lip, said he and two other children weren’t wearing seat belts.
The crash “also emphasizes the importance of proper utilization of passenger restraints including properly restraining small children in accordance with law,” the statement from the Spencer Police Department said.
Investigators were waiting on toxicology results to see whether the driver had consumed alcohol, though James said that could take weeks.
Nine people were inside the Envoy when it crashed in the Rowan County town of Spencer, about 50 miles northeast of Charlotte.
Authorities identified the driver as 28-year-old Angela Monique Dunlap of Spencer, who was killed.
Also killed were 25-year-old Sean Jacobs and 4-year-old Karizma Sexton, who shared the same Salisbury address; and 10-year-old Daja Cathcart and 45-year-old Vincent McNeal of Salisbury.
Taliah Williams, 8, died later that weekend at Brenners Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem after being taken off life support. The Associated Press contributed.
