3 from Rowan killed in North Dakota crash

By Sarah Campbell

scampbell@salisburypost.com

Four North Carolina men, including three from Rowan County, were killed Tuesday when the vehicle they were in struck a tractor-trailer head-on on a North Dakota highway.

Derek M. Sorrell, 27, of Spencer; William M. Webb, 25, of China Grove; and Scotty R. Eagle, 24, of Salisbury died in the accident, along with Julian G. Mazaba, 33, of Biscoe.

Sorrell’s stepfather, Jerry Kepley, said the men worked for KRC Building Solutions of Cleveland and were on their way home for the holidays after completing a job.

According to a report from the North Dakota Highway Patrol, the men were traveling eastbound in a 2004 Lincoln Navigator on U.S. 52, four miles west of Drake, N.D., when they collided with a 2012 Mack Truck traveling westbound at about 6:40 p.m. The driver of the Navigator was attempting to pass another eastbound vehicle, the report states. The weather conditions are listed as clear.

All four men were declared dead at the scene.

Robert Harold Layne III, the driver of the truck, was not injured in the accident.

Sorrell’s mother, Chris Kepley, was notified of the accident Wednesday morning. Later that day, she said she was “in shock.”

“It’s kind of hard to sum him up in a few words,” she said. “He was just a fun loving kid. He liked riding bulls and being outside, building things.”

Chris Kepley, who works as the public information officer for the Salisbury Fire Department, said her only son would “do anything for anybody.”

Sorrell was engaged and planned to marry in May, Jerry Kepley said.

Eagle was a 2006 graduate of North Rowan High School.

He was looking forward to being home for Christmas.

“Finishing up tomorrow finally get to head home for a couple days,” he wrote on his Facebook page Monday night. “Thank God, I miss everybody back home.”

Information about Webb and Mazaba was not available Wednesday.

Funeral arrangements for the men are still under way.

Contact reporter Sarah Campbell at 704-797-7683.

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