Fund set up for families of men killed in N.D. crash

A fund has been established to benefit families of the four North Carolina men who died in a North Dakota traffic accident earlier this week.

The KRC Donation Fund has been set up at Community One Bank on Jake Alexander Boulevard, according to Heather Drennan-Ribelin.

She and her husband, Kurt Ribelin, own KRC Building Solutions of Cleveland, the company for which the men worked. They were on their way home to North Carolina after completing a job for KRC in Williston, N.D., when the SUV they were in collided head-on with a Mack truck.

Killed were Derek M. Sorrell, 27, of Spencer; William M. Webb, 25, of China Grove; Scotty R. Eagle, 24, of Salisbury; and Julian G. Mazaba, 33, of Biscoe.

Drennan-Ribelin said she and her husband had received emails and calls from people asking how they could help the men’s families, so they set up the account.

Funds will be divided evenly among the four families, she said.

Drennan-Ribelin fought tears as she described the loss she and her husband feel after working side-by-side with the men.

In fact, her husband had worked on the Williston job with the men. He was not traveling home with them because he left the site to fly to New York on Sunday.

“I just wanted to let you know we thought of them as family; they were family,” she said.

KRC crews make steel-framed, fabric-covered structures, she said. The small business operates out of the Ribelin’s home, and the men who died in the accident comprise most of its workforce.

But she is not ready to think about what’s next for KRC, she said.

“That’s not even in our brains. ... Our only priority now is the families, reaching out and being there for them.”