Grandmother Loses License for Fatal Hit-and-Run

A Wayne County grandmother pleaded guilty Wednesday to a fatal hit-and-run accident last fall and had her driver's license taken away, authorities said.

Posted 3:41 p.m. Aug 2, 2007 — Updated 5:19 p.m. Aug 2, 2007

GOLDSBORO, N.C. — A Wayne County grandmother pleaded guilty Wednesday to a fatal hit-and-run accident last fall and had her driver's license taken away, authorities said.

Andy Anderson, 47, of the Elroy community, was found dead in the median of U.S. Highway 70 just east of Goldsboro on Nov. 8. Authorities said he had been lying in the median for about 12 hours before he was found.

Friends and relatives said Anderson had a daily routine of crossing busy U.S. 70 to go to a store less than a mile from the home where he lived with his parents.

Carol Coletrain Lane, 72, of LaGrange, was arrested weeks after the incident, when a tip to the state Highway Patrol led investigators to a vehicle with front-end damage consistent with the fatal accident.

Lane pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor hit-and-run and was sentenced to 45 days in jail, suspended to five years on unsupervised probation. Her license was revoked for medical reasons, and the state Division of Motor Vehicles will decide whether it will be reinstated, authorities said.

A sobbing Lane told WRAL last fall that she didn't know she had hit anyone on the dark and rainy night, so she never stopped.

"All of a sudden I just hit something," she said in November. "If I had known I had hit him, I would have stopped. But I thought, if it was a sign I hit, there was no need to stop."

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