Just six days into a new year, the first fatality on Sampson’s roads claimed the life of a 66-year-old Sampson County man.
John Allen, of 3690 Easy Street, Dunn, was traveling east on U.S. 13 towards Newton Grove, when he ran off the right side of the road and overturned into a creek.
According to Highway Patrol Sgt. Michael Davis, the fatality occurred around 7:10 p.m. Wednesday on U.S. 13, between Spivey’s Corner and Newton Grove, near the intersection at Wrye Branch Road.
Allen was driving a 2005 Chevrolet truck when the single-vehicle accident occurred. Trooper A.M. Russ was the investigating officer.
The number of fatalities in 2015 were significantly higher than the previous year, with the first fatality of 2015 occurring on New Year’s Day, following a one-vehicle collision on N.C. 41, claiming the life of 83-year-old Duplin County resident Johnny Williams, who was killed as a result of running of the road to the right in a curve and striking a ditch culvert.
According to First Sgt. David Kinlaw, highway deaths in Sampson County rose in 2015, nearly tripling the amount in all of 2014 and including one of the deadliest wrecks in recent years, according to statistics compiled by local N.C. Highway Patrol authorities.
There were 24 fatalities through the middle of November of 2015, and that number stayed the same through a usually busy enforcement over the holidays, which regularly see more motorists on Sampson’s main thoroughfares but are also the times of the heaviest patrols.
Wednesday’s fatality is the first since Nov. 17, when Tierra Jacobs, 24, was killed in a head-on wreck and subsequent pile-up on N.C. 24.