Late Sunday afternoon firefighters from Smith Chapel were dispatched along with EMS station 9 to a single vehicle accident with power lines down between Grantham School Road and Thunder Swamp Road. As the firefighters arrived on the scene they found a black truck with three patients out of the vehicle and power lines down across the roadway. Three individuals were checked out by EMS personnel and were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Firefighters set up traffic detours around the accident scene. The truck was heading east toward Mount Olive when it rounded a curve near Shady Grove Road ran off the right shoulder of the highway, struck a ditch bank and slammed into a light pole snapping it into and came to rest sitting up right facing north.
The accident is under an investigation by the North Carolina Highway Patrol and charges are pending. North Carolina DOT was called to respond to the scene and close a section of the road while Duke Power worked on clearing the power lines and replacing the utility pole. The road could be closed for five to six hours.
