• The dangerous Bolton intersection of U.S. 74-76 and N.C. 211 was the scene of 29th fatality of 2006 in Thursday afternoon collision. A South Carolina trucker didn’t apply brakes for red light and slammed into a station wagon and van.

By BOB HIGH
Staff Writer

A Southern Pines woman was killed instantly Thursday afternoon when her station wagon – stopped on U.S. 74-76 at Bolton for the traffic light at N.C. 211 – was struck from the rear at 55 mph by a large flatbed truck loaded with steel.

A Florence, S.C., truck driver was jailed late Thursday on charges of driving while impaired, second-degree murder and driving while his license is revoked.

Michael Schuyler Short, 41, of Florence, was jailed under a $200,000 bond, and made his required first court appearance Friday morning to be apprised of the charges and his bond. A local attorney was appointed to defend him.

Barbara Marie Schuman, 55, of Southern Pines, was the victim of the 2:55 p.m. incident that scattered east and westbound lanes of U.S. 74-76 with steel framing. She was alone in a 2005 BMW station wagon that was stopped for the red traffic light in the outside eastbound lane of U.S. 74-76.

Schuman’s death marked the 29th highway fatality – all in rural areas -- of 2006 in Columbus County. This compares to 17 highway deaths in 2005.

A 1995 Ford van – moving with a green light -- was in the middle of the eastbound lanes of U.S. 74-76 turning left from N.C. 211 to proceed west on U.S. 74-76.

The van was also struck by the truck and spun around in the intersection. The rear of the van was ripped open, but the driver and a passenger in the van were not seriously injured.
‘Alcoholic odor’

Court records Friday showed a blood sample was obtained from Short by Highway Patrol Trooper Richard Capps, who charged the trucker with the driving and murder offenses.

A “strong odor of alcoholic beverage about his person” was part of Capps’ report in the DWI charge. The level of alcohol in Short’s blood will not be known for about two to three weeks.

“The truck hit the BMW at 55 mph and there were no skid marks for the truck. The driver didn’t use his brakes. He jerked the truck to the left at the last second and hit the center and left rear of the BMW, then the left front of the truck hit the rear of the van,” Capps reported.

“It’s a miracle there wasn’t any traffic in the westbound lanes, because the truck overturned and flung the steel through the median and the truck skidded all the way across the westbound lanes onto the shoulder upside down.

“Anyone in the westbound lanes would have been crushed,” Capps pointed out.

Capps noted several empty mini-size liquor bottles, plus a half-full standard size bottle of vodka were found inside the cab of Short’s truck. A woman riding in the sleeper portion of the truck cab was described as “very drunk” by observers at the scene when she was cut from the wreckage. She was taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center with injuries reported as “serious.”

Revoked license

Capps noted Short had a valid South Carolina commercial driver’s license, but his license is considered revoked in North Carolina because he has a “failure to appear” for court on a speeding ticket in this state.

“It was the first day on the job for the trucking company for Short,” Capps pointed out. The truck is owned by Bobby Gene Damon of Darlington, S.C., and operated as BGD Trucking. Short was taking the steel to Wilmington.

The Southern Pines victim was on her way to Wilmington to help her son, who had just graduated from UNC-Wilmington, move to Charlotte, Capps said.

Highway Patrol Trooper Daniel Hilburn witnessed a portion of the wreck as he sat in his patrol car on the eastbound shoulder approximately 200 yards west of the intersection.

“They say you see things in slow motion. This wasn’t slow motion! It was bam, bam!,” Hilburn said Friday.

He said he had stopped another trucker for speeding and was doing some paperwork in his car when he looked up and saw the eastbound truck as it began to pass under the red traffic light.

‘Blur of something’

“I saw the traffic light move and I thought it can’t be because he’s over the height limit because it’s a flatbed truck. Now, I realize it was from the concussion of air when the truck hit the BMW that caused the light to move.

“Then, there was a blur of something moving to his right. I didn’t know until a few moments later that the blur was the van the truck hit,” Hilburn noted.

“The truck went through the middle of the intersection and turned on its side and began to slide, throwing steel all over the westbound lanes. The truck skidded across the westbound lanes and turned upside down and slammed into the embankment.

“I was parked behind the truck I had stopped and it blocked my view on the right side. I didn’t see the BMW when it was hit. While I was watching the light turned green for 74-76 traffic.

“The truck driver I had stopped got out of his truck and came back to where I was and I gave him his paperwork. He told me the flatbed truck’s brake lights never came on.

Females okay

“I drove to the intersection and saw the BMW to the right, the van, and the truck. I ran to the BMW and saw the woman who was unconscious. I ran to the van and I saw two females (driver and daughter) standing in the edge of the median.

“The females were hugging each other. They told me they were okay, and I ran to the truck. The driver and a woman he had with him were pinned in the cab. It was crushed up against the embankment,” Hilburn continued.

The trooper said he called for fire and rescue personnel, and also asked that a large wrecker be called to turn the truck over so the pinned man and woman could be reached.

“I was a little worried about fire. The BMW was leaking gas and I knew the hot muffler was in the wreckage somewhere. I asked a man who wanted to help to use my fire extinguisher to control any fire until rescue and fire people got there,” Hilburn added.

Trucker crawled out

“In a few minutes one of the people there told me the truck driver had crawled out the passenger window. He wasn’t badly hurt. They had to cut the woman out who was in the sleeper portion of the cab,” the trooper said.

Kerry Moses Russell, 55, of Mercer Street, Oak Island, was the driver of the van, and her daughter, Fallon, 17, was her passenger. The truck sheared off the rear of the van and when it hit, the force spun the van around in the middle of the intersection.

A tire made a perfect circle imprint on the asphalt as the van spun 360 degrees and then was pushed to the right and came to rest in the intersection. Mrs. Russell, the van driver, told Capps she saw the truck coming, but couldn’t get out of the way.

Betty Daniels, 55, also of Florence, was the woman in the truck’s sleeper unit.

The BMW was knocked 204 feet and stopped at the edge of the ditch off the eastbound lanes with the front facing the highway.

“The truck went 406 feet from the point of the first impact. That was 117,000 pounds moving at 55,” Capps added.

A hazardous materials unit from Whiteville was called to the scene just before nightfall to remove soil on the westbound shoulder where diesel fuel had leaked from the overturned truck.

All four lanes of U.S. 74-76 were reopened at 7:30 p.m.