Local News

Four people killed in Wayne County collision

The state Highway Patrol has released the names of four people killed Saturday in a collision on U.S. Highway 117 Alternate in Dudley.

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DUDLEY, N.C. — The state Highway Patrol has released the names of four people killed Saturday in a collision on U.S. Highway 117 Alternate in Dudley.
Troopers said Jeremy Elijah Bryant Pate, 20, of Dudley, was driving a Chrysler Sebring that collided just before 6 p.m. with a pickup truck, driven by Gordon Lane, 41, of Mount Olive.

Pate and Lane were killed, troopers said. Also killed were two other people inside the Chrysler, front-seat passenger Joseph Lee Carter, 21, of Dudley, and back-seat passenger Jerrod Roddick McKiver, 20, of Dudley.

According to a preliminary investigation, Pate was speeding, going 60 mph in a 45 mph zone, and trying to pass a third vehicle in a no-passing zone when the Chrysler and the oncoming truck collided, troopers said.

The vehicle that was being passed sustained minor damage. No one inside that vehicle was injured.

Dudley resident Mary Bogey said she was in her kitchen when she saw the Chrysler traveling on U.S. Highway 117 Alternate.

“It flew by and all of a sudden, I heard a ‘bam a lam!’” Bogey recalled Sunday.

Troopers said the three people in that Chrysler were killed instantly. The driver of the pickup truck died on the way to the hospital.

"That was awful for so many to get killed," Bogey said.

Only the two drivers were wearing seatbelts, troopers said.

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