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Just before 10 a.m. Wednesday, a green Honda Civic, carrying three female 11th grade Clayton High School students, was traveling east on Wilson Mills Road when, witnesses said, it spun out of control around a curve, crossed the center line and hit a white Chevrolet Impala traveling west.
The students were on their way to classes at the Middle College on the Johnston Community College campus, friends said.
State troopers said the front-seat passenger of the Honda, Leah Boykin, died at the scene. The driver and backseat passenger, Brandy Nicole Lee and Christine Chicco, were injured and airlifted to Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville, where they were listed in fair condition Wednesday afternoon.
The driver of the Chevrolet, 64-year-old Lonnie Locklear, was taken to Johnston Memorial Hospital, where his condition was not immediately known. Investigators said no one else was in the Chevrolet.
Residents in the area said the roadway where the accident occurred is a dangerous stretch of road where people drive at high speeds and that the posted speed of 45 mph is too fast.
"It's entirely too fast here," said Muriel Evans, a nearby resident. "They come around that curve and it's like a slingshot. Half the time, they're over the center line."
According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, from January 2002 to October 2005, there were 18 crashes -- one of them fatal -- reported on the stretch of road, where about 4,400 vehicles travel each day.
Meanwhile, students at Clayton High School hearing the news for the first time mourned the loss of their friend and shared concerns about their injured classmates.
"I can't believe it," said Sarah Tippett, a friend of the victims. "I'm scared to go anywhere. I'm shaken up."
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