By Chris Berendt

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Speed was a main factor in a deadly single-vehicle wreck that claimed the life of a 33-year-old Faison man, the 14th traffic death on Sampson County roadways this year, N.C. Highway Patrol authorities said.

Spencer Allen King, 33,of 3251 Preacher Henry Road, Faison, sustained fatal injuries as as result of the wreck, which occurred Wednesday night as King drove a GMC pickup not far from his home.

According to reports by Trooper J.F. Smith, the pickup was traveling west on Preacher Henry Road when it ran off the right side of the road, striking a ditch, a culvert and a wooden post before overturning into a field. King, who was not wearing a seat belt at the time, was ejected from the vehicle. He was reportedly pronounced dead at the scene.

Smith estimated the GMC pickup’s original traveling speed at 75 mph in the 55 mph zone. The wreck happened about eighth-tenths of a mile west of Dallie Road.

Since the beginning of July, there have been four fatal wrecks in Sampson County claiming a total of five lives.

Wednesday’s wreck was the first fatality since 46-year-old Sherman Todd Stanley of Benson was killed in another single-vehicle wreck as he drove to work in the early-morning hours of July 24. His vehicle ran off U.S. 701, nearly 4 miles south of Newton Grove.

“This makes the 14th for the year. At this point last year, there were four,” the Highway Patrol’s Tina Byrd said.

This year, there were that many in July alone.

Byrd noted that the fifth fatality of 2014 came on Aug. 9. In all of 2014, there was a total of nine traffic deaths in Sampson. With Wednesday’s deadly accident, 2015 has seen nearly triple the traffic deaths at the same point in the year and already exceeded the county’s 2014 tally of traffic deaths by five.

Reach staff writer Chris Berendt at 910-249-4616. Follow the paper on twitter @SampsonInd and like us on Facebook.