Traffic

Troopers: Choose safety, carefully, when car breaks down on highway

After a woman was killed Thursday morning on U.S. Highway 1 in Cary, law enforcement officers said her situation - stuck in a stalled vehicle in the middle of the highway - is always dangerous.

Posted Updated

By
Joe Fisher
, WRAL reporter
CARY, N.C. — After a woman was killed Thursday morning on U.S. Highway 1 in Cary, law enforcement officers said her situation – stuck in a stalled vehicle in the middle of the highway – is always dangerous.

If there are cars all around traveling at highway speed, the best option may be to stay in your car, with your seatbelt on, until help arrives.

If it's safe in all directions, officers say you should run for the shoulder.

Police have not said whether Melissa Dewey, of Ohio, was inside or out of her car when it was struck from behind by a Jeep Cherokee.

The crash closed U.S. Highway 1 between Cary Parkway and the U.S. Highway 64/Tryon Road Interchange for about three hours.

Three cars were towed from the scene. The driver of the Jeep, Cameron Roth of Raleigh, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

Sgt. Michael Baker with the Highway Patrol says drivers experiencing car trouble should do all they can to pull off to the shoulder, and drivers should maintain safe following distance to avoid hitting a stalled car.

“We have to constantly be thinking as motorists what happens if there’s a car, a pedestrian, a large tree, whatever the case may be,” Baker said.

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