A Turkey teenager was killed and three others seriously injured following a vehicle collision with a tractor-trailer on Thursday night, in which the driver of the tractor-trailer has now been charged.

According to reports from the N.C. Highway Patrol in Sampson County, at approximately 9:21 p.m. Thursday, McKenzie Reynolds of Clinton was driving a 2013 Nissan occupied by three others when it collided with a tractor trailer operated by Gary Highsmith, 50, of Tarheel, NC. The Nissan was traveling west on Pine Ridge Road when it collided with the tractor trailer, which was making a left turn out of the private driveway of 3521 Pine Ridge Road.

Following the collision, the Nissan ran off the right side of the roadway and struck a ditch culvert.

A Nissan passenger, David Braswell, 19, of Turkey, was killed, patrol authorities said.

Reynolds, along with the other two passengers, Ron Carter of Turkey and Jada Parker of Newton Grove, were transported to hospitals with serious injuries. As a result of the investigation, Trooper D.E. Tew charged Highsmith with misdemeanor death by vehicle.

Thursday’s deadly wreck was the seventh fatal collision investigated by troopers in 2020 on Sampson County roads, and the second in as many weeks. The seven fatal collisions have resulted in as many deaths, compared to nine fatal collisions resulting in 11 deaths at this time last year.

There have been a total of eight fatal wrecks in Sampson this year, with the first deadly wreck of the year — a single-vehicle collision on Jan. 2 — occurring within the Clinton city limits and investigated by the Clinton Police Department.

The Pine Ridge Road wreck was the first deadly collision since a 43-year-old Clinton woman died in a collision on N.C. 403 in northern Sampson County last week when her vehicle hydroplaned into the oncoming lane of travel and collided nearly head-on with a pickup truck hauling a dump trailer.

The Highway Patrol in Sampson County has investigated 17 deaths on county roads in each of the last two years, 2018 and 2019.

Editor Chris Berendt can be reached at 910-592-8137 ext. 2587.