DEEP RUN — A man was charged after his 2007 black Nissan pickup struck a van with three women and a youth near South Lenoir High School on N.C. 11.
David Johnson, 47, of Beulaville, was driving the truck around 3:20 p.m. on Thursday and was taken by ambulance to Lenoir Memorial Hospital, Trooper Gary Ipock of the N.C. Highway Patrol said.
“(The driver) was traveling south on the highway at a high rate of speed,” he said, “and rear-ended the van.”
The 1990 Plymouth Voyager veered off into the median, while the truck crossed the median and the northbound lane and ended up in a field, Ipock said.
Johnson was charged with driving while impaired and reckless driving.
The driver of the van, Ethel Williams of Rose Hill, was ejected during the wreck and airlifted to Vidant Medical Center from Jackson Crossroads, Ipock said.
A passenger, Maude Brown of Pink Hill, also was airlifted and taken to Vidant, he said.
Ipock said a 7-year-old boy had been a passenger in the van and he and his mother, Nakia Houston, 29, of Rose Hill, were taken to LMH with minor injuries.
Juan Rivera, 19, of Pink Hill was driving southbound with family members when he passed the wreck. He turned around to see if they could help.
“As soon as we got here,” he said, “all the police, they came here.”
Rivera said he saw two women in the van and one was hugging a young boy. He also said he saw another woman lying in the median.
“She was bleeding, like, really bad,” he said.
Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office and EMS and Deep Run and Pink Hill fire departments also responded, and Sandy Bottom Fire Department set up the landing zone for Vidant Medical Transport.
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.