1 dead, 6 injured in crash involving van towing kayaks in NC mountains, officials say
One person died and six others were hospitalized Monday after a Jeep collided with a kayak rental company’s van in Western North Carolina, officials said.
The wreck happened just before 3:30 p.m. on state Highway 16 near Sussex Road, a few miles shy of the Virginia border in Ashe County, the N.C. Highway Patrol said in a news release. A 49-year-old woman sitting in the front passenger seat of the Ford Econoline van owned by Zaloo’s Canoes in Jefferson was killed, officials said.
Highway Patrol said the driver of a 2012 Jeep Wrangler was traveling north on N.C. 16 when it crossed the center line and collided with the 2010 Econoline in the soutbound lane.
“The Jeep ran off the road and overturned,” the release states.
The driver, 60-year-old Amber Culver of Grassy Creek, was taken via helicopter to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem with serious injuries.
Four of the passengers in the van also had to be taken to the hospital in a helicopter, Highway Patrol said. They were transported to Johnson City Medical Center in Tennessee. Joann Ashely, 45, of Warrensville, who was driving the van, was driven by emergency services to Ashe Memorial Hospital in Jefferson.
Officials said the woman who was killed was wearing a seat belt.
McClatchy News is not publishing her name until additional family members have been notified of her death.
The investigation is ongoing, but Highway Patrol said impairment was not a “contributing factor.”
