AHOSKIE – A 19-year-old Cofield man lost his life in a single-vehicle accident near here Friday morning.

Richard Allen Pierce II of Thomas Bridge Road was killed after he reportedly lost control of a truck he was operating on Jernigan Swamp Road (RP 1238).

The accident, reported at 11:16 a.m. by a passing motorist, occurred 2.6 miles south of Ahoskie, just across the county line in Bertie County.

According to a report filed by North Carolina State Highway Patrol Trooper K.R. Velazquez, Pierce was operating a 1997 International truck owned by Stuart Pierce Farms of Ahoskie. The truck was traveling north at which time it veered off the right side of the road. Trooper Velazquez said Pierce apparently overcorrected the vehicle at that point, causing the truck to cross the centerline where it made contact with a ditch before overturning four times and coming to rest on its passenger’s side in an open field.

Pierce, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected.

Upon reaching the accident scene, Hertford County EMS personnel reported the incident as a fatality.

Powellsville Volunteer Fire Department members blocked off a section of Jernigan Swamp Road for over an hour to allow for a thorough investigation of the accident scene. Bertie County Emergency Management and the Bertie Sheriff’s Office also responded to the scene.

Trooper Velazquez said any possible contributing factors to the accident remain under investigation.

The death was the ninth of the year within the NCHP’s Troop A, District II area (Bertie, Gates and Hertford counties). Three of those fatalities have occurred to date in Bertie County.