By BOB HIGH

Kevin Samuel Tyler, 28, of Dozier Road, Chadbourn, became Columbus County’s fourth highway fatality of the year Friday afternoon when he was ejected from his car in a single-vehicle wreck east of Tabor City.

Tyler died at the scene from head injuries, according to Coroner Linwood Cartrette. The victim was thrown from the driver’s seat through the rear window as the car slammed backward into a ditch culvert on Ten Mile Road, less than a mile north of U.S. 701.

Highway Patrol Trooper Scott Floyd noted the wreck happened at 12:34 p.m. as Tyler was driving north on Ten Mile Road. Floyd said Tyler was driving fast – an estimated 85 mph – when he approached some slowing traffic.

Tyler braked his car as he neared a pickup truck that had slowed for a car making a left turn, plus there was a vehicle approaching in the southbound lane, the trooper said. Tyler’s car left lengthy skid marks before the car went out of control and began to spin and went across the centerline into the southbound ditch.

The passenger side – right front – of Tyler’s car struck the ditch, and then the car continued backward in the ditch and slammed into the culvert at an estimated 50 mph. The force of the crash threw Tyler and passenger Christopher Dean McPherson, 19, of N.C. 410 South, Chadbourn, out the rear window.

Floyd noted the two were not wearing seat belts and the force of the ejection broke Tyler’s headrest. McPherson and Tyler both landed on the northbound shoulder and Tyler died within a few minutes, Cartrette reported.
McPherson was released late Friday after emergency room treatment.

Tyler’s death is the fourth rural fatality this year, compared to five at this date in 2005. There were 17 fatalities last year, with 16 of them being in the rural areas of the county.