BENSON – Late Saturday night, a speeding westbound Mercedes with a driver and four passengers attempted to exit westbound I-40 at McGee’s Crossroad’s, exit 319, but traveled across Highway 210 and back down the on ramp on the other side. The driver lost control of his car midway down the ramp and slammed into a guardrail, seriously injuring at least one of the backseat passengers.
All five in the car were active duty Army soldiers from Fort Liberty, North Carolina.
50-210 and Cleveland firefighters, with Johnston County EMS, spent much of the next hour carefully extricating a passenger pinned in the back seat under the twisted steel guardrail. The guardrail had penetrated the passenger compartment.
Emergency workers cut a door and the roof off of the car then cut the guardrail itself in half to finally free the pinned victim. He was rushed to Wake Med.
The on-ramp was shut down for an extended period during the rescue operation.
Few official details are available, including the number of injuries and any charges, but North Carolina State Highway Patrol troopers investigated the 10:40pm accident. Johnston County Sheriff’s deputies assisted at the scene.
