Mount Ulla man charged with death by vehicle, other offenses in three-vehicle collision

Published 1:51 pm Thursday, December 19, 2019

By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — A Mount Ulla man was charged this week with felony death by vehicle and other related offenses nearly a month after a November three-vehicle collision that claimed the life of an 81-year-old Mooresville man.

According to an arrest warrant, the driver who troopers say caused the collision was impaired.

Thomas David Bost, 29, of the 700 block of Edmiston Road, was also charged on Tuesday with two counts of felony serious injury by vehicle, driving while license revoked (not impaired revocation), driving left of center and operating a vehicle with no insurance.

Robert George Williams, 81, of Mooresville, was killed when his Honda Accord was struck head-on while he was driving east on Mooresville Road (N.C. 150) with his wife, Marilyn, in the passenger seat.

A Ford Explorer was behind them. Williams’ vehicle was struck by a GMC Yukon heading in the opposite direction. The trooper, A. Bahadur, told the Post the driver of the Yukon, Thomas Bost, crossed the center line, struck the Honda head-on and then hit the Ford Explorer.

The driver of the Explorer, Jerry Liner, 72, was pinned in his vehicle, and the door had to be removed to free him.

The Accord and Explorer stopped facing south on the eastbound shoulder. The Yukon was facing west on the westbound shoulder. The door of the Accord had to be removed to free Robert Williams.

The trooper said Williams was wearing a seat belt and died after first responders arrived. Marilyn Williams also was wearing her seat belt, he said.

Bost was not wearing a seat belt, and he was ejected from his vehicle, the trooper said.

Marilyn Williams was taken by ambulance and flown to Carolinas Medical Center Main in Charlotte. Bost was airlifted to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.

Liner was taken to a hospital and was in stable condition at the time of the original report.

The arrest warrant says, “the defendant unlawfully and willfully did drive a vehicle on N.C. 150, a highway, while subject to an impairing substance. The impaired driving was the proximate cause of the death.”

The trooper’s report confirms Bost was under the influence of a drug, but it does not indicate the type of drug. Bost remains in the Rowan County jail under a $100,000 secured bond.

Mooresville Police charged Bost in June with heroin trafficking and other related drug offenses. He’s expected in Iredell County court later this month on those offenses.