MAY 18, 2015
BOONE, NC (AP)
The North Carolina Highway Patrol says a Tennessee family of
three and a South Carolina motorist are dead after a high-speed crash in the
North Carolina mountains.
Highway Patrol Trooper Matthew Grogan said Sunday that the
driver of a five-ton pickup truck was traveling at least 90 miles an hour
around a slight curve when he slammed head-on into the Tennessee family's Honda
Civic. Both vehicles burst into flames
after the Saturday night crash.
Dead are 24-year-old Nicholas Blackwell, his 23-year-old
wife Molly and their 11-month-old daughter Harper, all of Mountain City,
Tennessee.
Grogan says 64-year-old Michael Pinkham of Ridgeway, South
Carolina, was pulled from his burning truck by passers-by. He died later at a
hospital in nearby Boone.
The accident happened on U.S. Highway 421 on the
Tennessee-North Carolina border.