Hit & run driver surrenders

Published 12:10 pm Tuesday, March 6, 2018

AHOSKIE – The driver who left the scene of an accident near here last week that seriously injured his passenger has surrendered to authorities.

Kevin Wingfield, 49, of Ahoskie turned himself in to the North Carolina Highway Patrol’s local office on Friday, 24 hours after crawling out of his overturned car and leaving the accident scene on foot.

North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper J.G. Williams, who investigated the Thursday afternoon accident on US 13, charged Wingfield with felony hit and run resulting in serious injury. After surrendering on Friday, Wingfield was held at that time under a $20,000 bond.

Other charges are pending against Wingfield.

The passenger in Wingfield’s 2001 Oldsmobile, 56-year-old Robert Williams of Colerain, was trapped in the wreckage. He was freed thanks to the work of Ahoskie firefighters and initially transported to Vidant Roanoke-Chowan Hospital in serious condition. R. Williams was later taken to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville.

Trooper Williams said Wingfield and his passenger were traveling north on US 13 (just north of the DT Road intersection) at which time the car traveled off the right side of the highway where it impacted a ditch, a driveway culvert, and then overturned on the passenger’s side.

That accident triggered another wreck involving three vehicles.

Trooper Williams reported that a 2013 Chevrolet SUV, driven by 28-year-old Corey Marriner of Hertford, was traveling north on US 13 when he came upon the accident scene. At about the same time, 62-year-old Tommy Hoggard Jr. of Windsor, driving a 2000 Nissan pick up truck, and Jyrius Wills, 23 of Murfreesboro, operating a 2011 Chevrolet passenger car, were both southbound on US 13.

“Mr. Marriner was attempting to make a slow-speed pass of a few vehicles that had pulled to the shoulder off the northbound lane to assist with the overturned vehicle,” Williams explained. “As Mr. Hoggard slowed in his lane due to Mr. Marriner’s actions to maneuver past the parked vehicles, his (Hoggard) truck was rear-ended by the vehicle driven by Mr. Wills.”

After impact, Hoggard’s truck traveled a short distance down a ditch bank before coming to a halt. Meanwhile, the vehicles driven by Wills and Marriner collided at a slow speed in the middle of US 13.

Wills was charged with failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and operating a motor vehicle without wearing a seat belt.

Marriner was cited for driving left of center.

US 13 was blocked for several hours. Hertford County Sheriff’s deputies rerouted traffic using the Arrow Drive In Road and DT Road.

About Cal Bryant

Cal Bryant, a 40-year veteran of the newspaper industry, serves as the Editor at Roanoke-Chowan Publications, publishers of the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald, Gates County Index, and Front Porch Living magazine.

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