The car went through a guardrail and down an embankment on I-77 near Mile Marker 27. (Huntersville Fire Department photo)
Updated Monday, Jan. 6, 11:01am
A 26-year-old Cleveland, NC, man was killed Sunday night in a single-car crash on I-77 northbound just north of the Westmoreland Road overpass in Cornelius. The State Highway Patrol said alcohol was a factor in the 10pm wreck, which also injured a passenger.
Allen Jamar Ford, 26, of Hemlock Road in Cleveland, was thrown from the car when it left the highway, struck a guardrail and rolled down an embankment. He died in an ambulance on the way to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. Police said he was not wearing his seatbelt.
A 33-year-old female passenger from Wadesboro also was injured, though less seriously. She was wearing a seatbelt.
Witnesses told the State Highway Patrol that Ford was driving north on I-77 when he attempted to pass a car on the left shoulder. He lost control of the car, veered back across the interstate and ran off the right side of the road. The car struck the guardrail, went down an embankment and overturned.
A State Highway Patrol spokesman said the woman said the two had been drinking, and alcohol was listed as contributing circumstance in the crash.
Firefighters from Cornelius and Huntersville responded along with North Meck Rescue and police.
Previous story, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, 10:48pm
1 person seriously hurt in I-77 northbound wreck
Firefighters from Cornelius and Huntersville and North Meck Rescue responded to a bad wreck on foggy I-77 northbound just north of Westmoreland Road Sunday night. At least two people were hurt, one seriously, when a car went off the road and down an embankment, according to emergency radio dispatches.
The wreck happened around 10pm at mile 26.6 of the interstate. Rescue crews on the scene said the car went off the right side of the highway and landed in the woods. One person was thrown from the car and suffered what rescue workers described as “life-threatening” injuries.
That man and another patient were being transported by ambulance to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte around 10:35pm. Rescue workers were performing CPR on the man en route to the hospital.
At 11pm, one lane was reopened on the highway but traffic was slow from about Exit 25, a Huntersville fire spokesman reported.
The State Highway Patrol was on scene investigating. No further information was available late Sunday.
