ROCKINGHAM — Over the weekend, a man from Mecklenburg County died after he allegedly crashed into a tractor-trailer while leading a police officer on a chase.
On Sunday, September 22, near the intersection of U.S. 74 Business and Biltmore Drive, the N.C. State Highway Patrol says a trooper pulled over a 2017 Ford Fusion for not having working headlights.
The policeman talked to the driver and “noticed signs of impairment during the investigation,” according to the report.
It was said that the driver, Robert Earl Jones of Charlotte, ran away from the scene of the crime and led the trooper on a one-minute chase through town, finishing in a crash with a tractor-trailer at the intersection of U.S. 74 Business and U.S. 220.
The Highway Patrol said Jones was declared dead at the scene. No one was hurt, not the trooper nor the driver of the tractor-trailer. The patrol car was also not damaged.
The Highway Patrol did not say the trooper’s name when they first told the news.
This is the second fatal chase that the Highway Patrol has been involved in in Richmond County this year.
Stephon Ramon La-vonn Bennett, 26, of Laurel Hill is said to have lost control of his car during a short chase in July. He went off the road to the right, hit the retaining wall in front of Crawford Law Office, and the car caught fire.
Bennett was also thought to be driving while drunk.