HIGH POINT, N.C. – I love that song “Happy.” Don’t you? It just makes you feel so good. On Thursday morning, 8:33 a.m. to be exact, woman was posting just that sentiment to Facebook while she was driving. At 8:34 she was dead. The irony of this is heart wrenching –...
Car Accidents
School bus passing violations take 50-percent leap in Forsyth, N.C.
Some of the results are back. They’re really bad. Last week I wrote about the Department of Public Instruction’s program of tracking school bus passing violations. One day, each year, bus drivers across North Carolina count the number of vehicles that pass them with...
Number of vehicles illegally passing school buses is horrifying
How many cars in North Carolina pass a stopped school bus in a day? On Wednesday bus drivers were counting. And you can count on it that the number will be shocking. At the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, I wrote about the deadly season of bus crashes just...
Madness in March: Impaired driving is a losing game
No one’s more aware of March Madness than those of us here in basketball-crazy North Carolina. It’s been even madder with the storms that have relentlessly slammed us as winter has seemed to be winding up when it should be winding down. But speaking of foul weather,...
Arrest Made in Bus-stop Hit & Run
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – A 17-year-old was charged with the hit-and-run accident that injured a 7-year-old girl at a school bus stop Monday morning. Accidents involving school buses have been occurring with a chilling regularity since last fall. As one reader remarked...
Child Struck by Car in Hit & Run; Bus Continued Route to School
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Late reports on Monday night from WFMY-TV News 2 and WXII-TV clarify some details of the incident in which a 7-year-old girl was struck by a car as she crossed the street to get on her school bus. The child was hit by a car just before 8 a.m. as...
UNC’s “Time to Drive” Phone App, Like, Way Maxes Teenagers’ Drivers’ Education
"There’s an app for that.” Yo, that line has gotten so stale it’s like all 2011, yo. OK, that’s enough of my bad imitation of teenager-speak, but there is a new smartphone application aimed at teenagers that’s just out, and it looks pretty good. “Time to Drive” helps...
Woman Sentenced in Connection to a Crash that Killed 3
The holiday season brings family gatherings and celebrations that often include alcohol. Theresa Bruckner’s tragic story serves as a reminder that those serving alcohol at their parties or in their homes are responsible for the safety of those drinking and those who...
2012’s Deadly Season of School Bus Crashes
2012’s deadly season of school bus accidents On the last Friday morning in October a pickup truck smashed into the back of a stopped school bus on a highway just north of Rocky Mount, a small town about halfway between Roanoke and Martinsville, Virginia. I read in the...
N.C. Texting Case Illustrates “Perfect Storm” of Danger
In what may be the first court case involving North Carolina’s two-year texting ban, Andrew James Watkins, age 25, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor death by vehicle this past week. The accident, which took place in Asheville, N.C., in August of 2010, took the life of...