By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Two drivers were injured Thursday in a grinding collision on N.C. 150 between a Chevrolet Tahoe and AT&T service truck.
The accident occurred about 4:15 p.m. near the entrance to the Hidden Hut subdivision.
The AT&T truck’s driver, Charles Kent Ireland, 57, of Harmony, was airlifted to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem. Locke firefighters had to free him from the truck after witnesses said he was wedged behind the steering wheel from the head-on impact.
Ireland was conscious and alert as he was taken to the medical helicopter’s landing zone at Locke’s station on N.C. 150.
The Tahoe’s driver, 71-year-old Claudie Jay Boyd of 129 Ridge Creek Court, Salisbury, was transported to Rowan Regional Medical Center. He also was conscious as rescue workers attended to him.
Trooper A.J. Carpenter of the State Highway Patrol said the AT&T truck was traveling west when the Tahoe, pulling an open trailer, locked down its brakes, crossed the center line and veered into the AT&T truck’s path.
Long skid marks were visible in the eastbound lane of N.C 150.
Jeff Baker, who lives along N.C. 150 where the accident occurred, had just pulled into his driveway after making a run down the road for gas for his mower. He said he heard “the awfullest bang.”
“It scared me to death because I knew he should be on the way back,” Jeff’s wife, Shirley, said of hearing the crash, that woke up their sleeping teen daughter Taylor.
Boyd was able to get out of his vehicle and he was asking whether everyone was all right, Jeff Baker said. He said Boyd looked to be bleeding a bit from one side of his head.
Taylor Baker called 911.
Jeff Baker said this stretch of N.C. 150 has had at least three accidents within the past year, and he worries that the 50 mph speed limit is too high, especially with all the subdivision entrances in this area. He and his wife say it’s always dangerous for them, when they have to slow down to make turns into their driveway off N.C. 150.
“You never know when someone’s not paying attention,” Shirley Baker said.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263.