WINDSOR – Derrick Bond, the third-year boy’s basketball coach at Bertie High School, was seriously injured near here Thursday evening during a two-vehicle accident on US 13.

Rescuers had to use the ‘jaws of life’ to extract Bond from the wreckage, after which he was airlifted to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville. There, according to Bertie School officials, he underwent over an hour of emergency surgery for his injuries.

The accident took place at around 7 p.m. on US 13 between Ella’s Café and Bertie High School, where coach Bond had just concluded practice.

NC Highway Patrol Trooper C.W. Godwin told the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald that Bond was operating a 2005 Ford Escape southbound on US 13. Meanwhile, a 2009 Volkswagen, driven by Elijah Daesean White, 17, of Windsor, was headed north.

Godwin’s report showed that White’s vehicle veered left of center and struck Bond’s vehicle head-on.

White and his passenger – 17-year-old Ahmaudre Outlaw of Windsor – were both transported by Bertie EMS to Vidant Bertie Hospital. Neither suffered life-threatening injuries, according to Godwin.

The Trooper added that charges are pending in the accident.