GREENSBORO, N.C. — Police say one person died, another person was critically injured and a tractor-trailer driver is charged with DWI as the result of an early Wednesday crash on Interstate 40 in Greensboro.
The crash, which involved a Toyota Prius and a tractor-trailer from the North Wilkesboro-based Bumgarner Serivces, was reported shortly after midnight on I-40 East near Lee Street.
Capt. Renae Sigmon with the Greensboro Police Department says it appears the Prius went off the right side of the road before the driver over-corrected and came to a stop facing north. The Prius was then struck by the tractor-trailer, she said.
Sigmon says the driver of the Prius, who she identified only as a man named Khristopher Blue, died at the scene.
Laterria Whitener, the female passenger in the Prius, was taken to Moses Cone Hospital where she was listed in critical, but stable condition as of Wednesday afternoon.
Whitener is a 2012 graduate of Bennett College. The community gathered for a candlelight vigil at the school on Wednesday night to pray for her recovery.
Allen Coe, the driver of the tractor-trailer, was arrested. He is charged with DWI, DWI in a commercial vehicle and “other assorted alcohol offenses.”
Police are still investigating the crash.
“It’s going to be a process,” lead investigator A.D. Reed said. “We need to talk to people. People may have seen them earlier. I don’t know of any mechanical defects. We need to figure out what human factor added to the crash.”
I-40 East was closed at the U.S. Highway 29 split on Wednesday while police reconstructed the crash.
