• West Columbus High School student killed as he was ejected from an overturning vehicle Wednesday night.

By BOB HIGH
Staff Writer

Quinton Taft Phillips, 15, of Evergreen – a ninth grader at West Columbus High School – became Columbus County’s first highway fatality of 2007 Wednesday night in an 80-mph crash along Peacock Road.

Phillips was a passenger in a 1996 Chevrolet SUV and ejected onto the highway as the SUV overturned “six or seven” times, according to Highway Patrol Trooper Gene Nance.

Daniel Wayne Scott, 16, of the 7300 block of Peacock Road -- driver of the SUV – was severely injured and is hospitalized in the UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. His Chevrolet was traveling an estimated 80 mph when he lost control.

Scott, a 10th grader at West Columbus, was also ejected and sustained head injuries, plus other trauma to his body.

Nance said Scott was driving north and had just crossed the railroad when he lost control in the curve leading to the intersection of Old U.S. 74. The trooper noted the railroad crossing is “a little elevated” and that might have caused the SUV to become airborne for a short distance.

The vehicle went to the left into the center of the road, veered back to the right and then all the way to the opposite side of the highway, overturning as it moved north, the trooper said.

Nance’s report showed the vehicle traveled 189 feet before beginning to overturn and another 411 feet – for a total of 600 feet – before stopping upright in the woods on the west side of the highway.

The SUV’s engine was still running and the radio was playing when a wrecker pulled it from a wooded area within 20 feet of a large drainage canal that requires a short bridge on Peacock Road.

Phillips’ body was found in a ditch near the edge of the woods, and Scott was laying on the shoulder of the road near the youth considered one of his best friends, reports show.

The crash site was within 1.5 miles north of Scott’s home. There were 29 highway fatalities in 2006, all of them in rural settings. There had been three fatal wrecks last year recorded by this time last year.