The county’s 13th traffic fatality might have been avoided if the driver had been wearing a seatbelt, the Highway Patrol said Monday.
Michael Lee Shipman, 50, was traveling east on Charley Lennon Road near the county line when he lost control of his Chevrolet Silverado pickup, according to Trooper P. Collins of the Highway Patrol. The truck went off the right side of the dirt road at an excessive speed and struck a ditch, overturning.
Shipman was partially thrown from the truck and crushed beneath the truck.
“There is no doubt in my mind he would be alive today if he was wearing his seatbelt,” Collins said.
The crash occurred around 4:30 p.m.
Shipman had a Twisted Hickory Road, Bladenboro address.
The fatality was the second in four days in the county. A Thomasville man died Thursday when the box truck in which he was a passenger rearended a stopped transfer truck on N.C. 87 in Riegelwood. The driver of the box truck was charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle.
