A 38-year-old-man killed in a Thursday night automobile accident may have survived if he’d worn a seat belt.
N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper S. Marshall said Henry Clay Mahala Jr., of Salisbury, was killed when he was ejected from his 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
The first call of the accident on Old Concord Road came in at 11:36 p.m. Thursday.
Marshall said Mahala had just passed the intersection of Mount Hope Church Road and ran off the edge while coming out of a curve. Mahala overcorrected and hit a ditch on the left side of the road, flipping the Jeep twice about a tenth of a mile past Mount Hope Church Road.
He was the only person in the vehicle and was driving an estimated 60 mph in the 45 mph zone. Marshall said no drugs or alcohol were involved, and speed was the key factor in the accident, along with not wearing a seat belt.