Three individuals, including two from Ahoskie, were tragically killed during two separate wrecks over a period of 12 hours from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Both mishaps occurred on US 13 – one in Gates County, the other in Bertie.

The deadlier of the two accidents occurred Wednesday morning, 4.3 miles south of Powellsville between Piney Wood Chapel Church and Buena Vista. There, Terrence Leon Joyner of Aulander – who had just celebrated his 41^st birthday on Tuesday – and 79-year-old Robert Gatling Jr. of Ahoskie were killed in a two-car crash.

Joyner, who according to the North Carolina Highway Patrol was coming off the night shift at Bertie Correctional Institution, was traveling alone in a 2007 Toyota passenger car northbound on US 13 at approximately 8:08 a.m. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Davis Bayse, 49 of Ahoskie, was behind the wheel of a 2008 Ford passenger car traveling south.

The investigation conducted by NCHP Trooper C.W. Godwin revealed that Joyner’s car traveled left of the center line and struck the Bayse vehicle head-on. Gatling was the front seat passenger. Bayse was airlifted from the scene.

Three passengers, all of Ahoskie, in the back seat of the Bayse car were injured – Brandon Kirkland, 22, Mallory Bayse, 6, and 2-year-old McKenzie Kirkland. The extent of their injuries is unknown.

Twelve hours earlier (8:05 p.m. Tuesday), Donald Ryan Cline, 28, of 132 Arrow Road, Ahoskie, died as the result of a two-car mishap at the intersection of US 13 and Barfield Road, near Dave’s Place, in Gates County.

According to NCHP Trooper Jason Williams, Cline, operating a 1993 Honda passenger car, was traveling on Barfield Road and had come to a stop at the US 13 intersection. As he was attempting to turn left onto US 13 South, his car was struck by a vehicle operated by Brenda Hathaway Knight, 65, of 465 US 158 East, Gatesville. Knight’s vehicle was northbound on US 13.

Cline, who was trapped inside his car and extricated by members of the Eure Volunteer Fire Department, was airlifted to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital where he later died.

Knight did not suffer any life-threatening injuries.

No charges were filed in either accident.

These mishaps caused the 2014 death toll to rise to 18 in the NCHP’s Troop A/District 2 area. Twelve of those fatalities have now occurred in Bertie County, and five in Gates. Only one life has been lost this year due to a motor vehicle accident in Hertford County.