A West Virginia man, Andrew Justin Zickasoose, was fatally injured Friday, Aug. 20, 2010, after a one-vehicle wreck on U.S. 220 north of Star, in Montgomery County, North Carolina.
Zickasoose, age 22, of Oak Hill, W.Va., was a passenger in a 1999 Ford driven by Joshua Stover, 22, N. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Although we can’t tell for certain, this accident has some of the earmarks of being a sleep-related crash, particularly because of the time at which it occurred.
According to the N.C. Highway Patrol, Stover was driving north around 4:30 a.m. on U.S. 220 when he began to run off the road to the right. Stover lost control of the vehicle, which collided with the guardrail and flipped several times, Trooper H.W. Hicks III reported.
Zickasoose was ejected from the vehicle. He was later taken to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where he was pronounced dead.
Stover was taken to Randolph Hospital in Asheboro where he was treated and released. He was charged with reckless driving and failure to wear a seat belt.
As we said, drowsy driving suggests itself as a possible cause of this crash. Such crashes occur more often between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. Other common factors include:
- a single vehicle running off the roadway
- occurring on higher-speed roadways
- resulting in serious injuries
- involve a young, male driver
- driving a long distance
No matter what the cause of this tragic event, we can take a moment to remind ourselves of one hazard of driving in the early morning hours. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim in their time of mourning.
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