Several people were hurt Tuesday afternoon when their vehicles crashed into each other — causing one to flip on its roof — at the intersection of Rhem Street and West Highland Avenue.
A Nissan Pathfinder SUV sat on its roof in the intersection, its rear panels smashed after the driver, Ebony Catrece Keys, 36, of La Grange, failed to stop at the stop sign and collided with a Nissan Altima, driven by Edna Lennette Horton, 59, of Kinston, shortly after 2 p.m., according to Kinston police.
Traffic Ofc. Travis Moore of the Kinston Department of Public Safety said Keys was driving north on Rhem Street at an estimated 40 mph and did not stop for the stop sign, causing Horton, who was traveling east on Highland, to collide with her.
Moore said the Pathfinder then skidded toward the curbing at the intersection, struck the curbing, began to tilt and struck a nearby utility pole as it turned over.
Keys’ 2-year-old son was one of three passengers in the vehicle. Moore said he was in a child safety seat, but the boy exceeded the seat’s weight limit.
An adult passenger, Tiffany Slade, 39, was taken to Lenoir Memorial Hospital and then airlifted to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville.
Keys, her son and another adult passenger were treated at LMH. Moore said Horton, who had no passengers, declined treatment at the scene.
Alvina Dupree, who lives about a block east of the accident scene on Pollock Street, said she heard a “boom,” but did not pay it any attention until her son came into the house and told her there had been an accident.
Dupree ran to the scene and saw her friend, Slade, stuck in the upside-down Pathfinder.
She bemoaned the fact that the city had not made Rhem and Highland a four-way stop — a stop sign has only been placed along Rhem — especially since drivers often speed through the neighborhood.
“They fly through here like they’re on a race track somewhere,” she said.
Her neighbor, Marlene Thompson, who lives several houses east of the accident scene, was walking out of her house when she heard the crash. The former medical assistant and Girl Scout sprinted toward the scene.
“You hear the impact and you take off running,” she said.
Thompson said she worked to keep the accident victims calm and keep Slade alert and still as Kinston firefighters used a Jaws of Life device to free her from the vehicle.
She said she had seen other crashes in the area involving flipped-over vehicles, and tried to get city officials to make the intersection a four-way stop. She spoke to fire Cmdr. Kevin Scully about improving the safety — Scully told her he would pass the information on to city leaders.
Moore said Keys was charged with exceeding a safe speed, failing to stop at a “duly erected” stop sign and transporting a child without a proper child restraint system.
He said he could recall few crashes with “significant damage or injury” along West Highland, and pointed to speed and failing to stop at the stop sign as factors in Tuesday’s crash.
He noted a speed limit had not been posted, but stressed Kinston’s citywide speed limit is 35 mph unless otherwise posted.
“I think the main contributing factors to this wreck was that Ms. Keys was traveling too fast for a residential area, and also that she failed to stop at a stop sign,” he said.
David Andersoncan be reached at 252-559-1077 or David.Anderson@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.