By Joanie Morris

Salisbury Post

KANNAPOLIS — When neighbors on Ebenezer Road heard a big boom Wednesday, they figured blasting was going on at a quarry behind them on China Grove Road.

But, they went outside to check just the same.

“I opened the door and no, it wasn’t the rock quarry,” said Kim Rogers, who lives at 1250 Ebenezer Road. When she looked out her front door, there was a red Pontiac sedan resting against the base of an oak tree in her yard.

Upon further inspection, Rogers saw a white Chevrolet van on the side of the road at the curve just up from her house. She and a friend watched workers as they freed the drivers from the cars.

Candie Davis, another neighbor, said she and Jonathan Barnette heard the boom and thought it was the quarry blasting, as well.

“We was in the house cooking and heard a big boom,” Barnette said.

“I told him to go check and see what it was,” Davis said. “He said go dial 911.”

Barnette went to check on the driver of the red car, who was alert and conscious when he got there.

“When I first got over there, the car was smoking a little bit,” said Barnette. The driver of the car asked Barnette to help him out, but “I told him I couldn’t move him.”

N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper C.F. Rogers investigated the accident and said at the scene that the driver of the Pontiac, David Frye of 607 Dodge St., Kannapolis, was driving south towards Kannapolis when he crossed the center line around the curve and hit the van.

The van, driven by Deborah Schmidt, 950 Ebenezer Road, was hit in the left front by the Pontiac’s front end.

“When they hit, they still continued on their regular paths and veered off the road,” Rogers said. That’s when Frye hit the tree in Rogers’ yard and the van came to rest near a stand of woods on the right side of Ebenezer Road.

Frye, Schmidt and a passenger in Schmidt’s van, Elnora Bloss of Kannapolis, were all transported to NorthEast Medical Center, said Mount Mitchell Assistant Fire Chief Randall Ritchie. Mount Mitchell firefighters had to free all three people from the cars.

Frye was transferred from NorthEast by ambulance to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where he was listed in fair condition Wednesday night, according to a hospital spokesperson.

Schmidt was treated and released at NorthEast, and Bloss was admitted. She was listed in fair condition Wednesday night, according to a hospital spokesperson.

In addition to the N.C. Highway Patrol and volunteers with Mount Mitchell Fire Department, Rowan Rescue Squad and Rowan County Emergency Medical Services responded.