CHARLOTTE — One person is dead and two others are in the hospital after a crash Wednesday night in east Mecklenburg County.
According to a news release from the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office, a deputy attempted a traffic stop at 9:08 p.m. on Wednesday at Pioneer Mill Road and Morrison Road. The driver fled from the deputy, leading to a pursuit.
The fleeing car was going between 80 mph and 100 mph.
The sheriff’s office says the deputy lost sight of the driver after about one minute but later found the two-car crash at the intersection of Rocky River Church Road and Woodland Farm Drive.
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The deputy gave first aid to the victims until MEDIC arrived.
“We heard it,” said nearby resident Kenzie Woodson.
The collision sounded like an explosion, she said.
After hearing the loud noise, Woodson went to see what happened.
“The car that was coming this way, hit him real hard and it just split the car in half,” Woodson told Channel 9.
Woodson took a photo of the 2002 Acura that was in two pieces.
“It was kind of crazy,” Woodson said. “Like everything was everywhere. Pieces of the car were everywhere. The other car was in the back of my neighbor’s fence.”
The driver of the speeding Acura was thrown from the vehicle and died.
MEDIC said two other people were taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
A sheriff’s spokesperson said the driver who died turned the car lights off just before impact.
Nobody in the car has been identified yet.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department will be investigating the accident and working to identify the suspect. Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office will be doing an internal investigation to make sure their pursuit protocols were followed.
No further information has been released.
Return to this story for updates.
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