2yearold dead in fiery bridge crash in North Carolina's Outer Banks
Dec 13, 2024
DARE COUNTY, N.C. (WAVY) — A 2-year-old child has died and a man is in critical condition following a crash and car fire on the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge Thursday morning, an officer with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said.
A 1991 Mustang that had been heading eastbound on the U.S. Route 64 Bypass on the bridge was stopped in the far right-hand lane, and a 2023 GMC Acadia that did not slow down struck the rear of the Mustang, which caught on fire, according to the highway patrol.
Scene of crash and car fire on the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge Thursday morning. (WAVY viewer photo)
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The driver of the Acadia, who is from Columbia, North Carolina, pulled the driver of the Mustang out of the car, and the driver of the Mustang, from Manns Harbor, North Carolina, said his 2-year-old was still in the car, and they could not get the child out, the highway patrol said.
The 2-year-old died, and the driver of the Mustang is at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in critical condition with serious burns, the highway patrol said. The driver of the Acadia suffered minor injuries, and the highway patrol said neither alcohol nor speeding were factors in the crash.
The vehicle of a Dare County Sheriff's deputy who was responding to the crash was also rear-ended by another driver. The deputy was not injured, the highway patrol said, but the driver of the Acadia, despite helping the Mustang's driver out of his car, still faces charges.
"We are we're still looking into several resources," said Sgt. Colby Pridgen with the N.C. State Highway Patrol. "We have a few more resources as far as vehicles behind that possibly have some dash camera footage that we're attempting to retrieve. We did file two charges today, failure to reduce speed and misdemeanor death at this time."
The Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge is a four-lane bridge in Dare County that spans the Croatan Sound between Manns Harbor and Roanoke Island.