By Jessie Burchette

Salisbury Post

Officials have identified the two people who died in a horrific head-on collision Christmas Day on Stokes Ferry Road.

Edie Melissa Patterson, 39, of 12855 Stokes Ferry Road, and James Brown Lyerly, 66, of 3890 Union Church Road, died about 4:30 p.m. in the wreck at 13420 Stokes Ferry Road.

Two others remain hospitalized. Olive Robinson Fowler, 85 of 8655 U.S. 601, Salisbury, is in Wake Forest University Baptist Center in Winston-Salem where she is in critical condition.

Paige Fowler Lyerly, 59, of 3890 Old Union Church Road, remains in Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. She is in fair condition.

The accident happened on a straight section of Stokes Ferry Road about 13 miles southeast of Salisbury.

Patterson, driving a 2003 Mazda Protege south, pulled out to pass a vehicle in front of her according to Trooper D.T. Sloop of the N.C. Highway Patrol.

Patterson’s husband, Eric, who was ahead of her in a Ford Explorer, told Sloop that she went around him and that’s when her Mazda plowed head-on into the 2002 Buick Century driven by Paige Fowler Lyerly.

The accident happened a short distance from the Pattersons’ home on Stokes Ferry Road.

Emergency workers at the scene described Patterson as being distraught. Lyerly and her family were returning from a visit to Raleigh. The impact crushed the vehicles, pinning in the drivers and passengers.

Sloop said there were no skid marks, indicating neither car attempted to brake.

After the collision, skid marks showed the cars continued for a short distance.

Although the road was wet and there had been intermittent showers, Sloop said he didn’t think weather was a factor. Powles Funeral Home in Rockwell is handling the Patterson funeral, but arrangements are incomplete.

Attempts to contact members of the Patterson and Lyerly families were unsuccessful.