By Shavonne Potts
Salisbury Post
A Gold Hill woman and her three children were taken to area hospitals after the car she was driving crashed into a ditch culvert along Stokes Ferry Road early Thursday morning.
Amanda Milam, 26, was taking her children ó Dakota, 4, Montana, 3, and infant Isaiah, to daycare when she crossed the center lane and lost control of her 1992 Mercury Sable.
According to North Carolina Trooper M.T. Eason, the mother was talking to her children and trying to drive at the same time when she drove over the center line.
After losing control of the car, Milam drove off the left side of the road and struck a ditch culvert pipe in a private drive, Eason said.
She is charged with driving left of center.
The wreck happened at 11950 Stokes Ferry Road about 7:30 a.m. No other vehicles were involved, the trooper said.
Milam was taken to Rowan Regional Medical Center with a broken ankle, her son Isaiah was also taken to Rowan with a lip injury.
“He bit his lip,” Eason said.
The two other children were taken to Carolinas Medical Center NorthEast. Montana Milam remains in fair condition, Dakota’s condition was unknown.
This is the third such wreck this week said Laura Peeler who lives a short distance from Thursday’s wreck.
Peeler recalled wrecks on Monday morning and Wednesday night on the same road, not far from this collision. She’s lived at her 11815 Stokes Ferry Road home for 30 years and said the road is dangerous.
“It’s very sad this situation has to continue,” she said of the multiple collisions.
Just at the end of Peeler’s driveway are tires she’s painted white to act as a reflector and buffer. One of those wrecks happened near her driveway.
She said people ask her about the tires all the time.
“I’m hoping to use it as a cushion if someone were to wreck,” Peeler said.
Tire tracks can be seen at the edge of Peeler’s driveway in the mud, the only remnants of a recent wreck.
The speed limit near her home is 55 mph and, although most of the road is straight, it has some sharp curves. Milam wrecked in a curve.
Peeler said she thinks there should be more signs on Stokes Ferry to indicate warn motorists of the curves.
She knows of Milam and her children, but does not know the family personally, Peeler said.
She believed the mother had taken her 5-year-old to Morgan Elementary School. Peeler’s grandchildren also attend Morgan Elementary.
When Liberty Fire Department arrived on the scene of the wreck, Amanda Milam, was trapped inside the vehicle, said Fire Chief Darrin Trexler.
“We popped the door to get her out,” he said.
Trexler noted that the children were all in child safety seats.
The wreck scene was cleared by 9 a.m.
Liberty Fire Station 59 and 60, Gold Hill Fire Department, Rowan Rescue Squad and the Highway Patrol all responded.