Authorities say a man was impaired when he crossed the center line and ran head-on into another vehicle Thursday night.
Colby Brooks, of Mooresville, has been charged with driving while impaired and driving left of center, said N.C. State Highway Patrol Trooper S. Marshall. He said warrants have been drawn charging Brooks with two counts of drug possession.
Marshall said Brooks had Xanax and Opana — a narcotic pain reliever — that hadn’t been prescribed to him. The trooper said he won’t know until blood test results are returned in several months whether the man was taking those drugs when the wreck happened, but that “he was on something.”
Brooks and Danielle Morton, also of Mooresville, were taken by ambulance to Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast after the wreck. Brooks had an arm injury and was complaining of head pain. Morton had a knee injury.
Both were treated and released from the hospital’s emergency department, a nursing supervisor said.
The wreck happened in southwestern Rowan County on N.C. 152 near Concordia Church Road.
Morton was driving east on N.C. 152 and told investigators she saw a vehicle traveling the opposite direction swerve across the center line and into her lane a couple of times. Morton moved as far to the right as she could to avoid the oncoming GMC Sierra pickup, she said, but it crossed the center line again and slammed into her Dodge Durango.
Marshall said both vehicles were totalled.
Witnesses confirmed that Brooks caused the collision, Marshall said. One person who was driving behind Brooks had called 911 before the wreck to report him as a possible drunk driver because of his swerving across the road.
Neither of the drivers’ ages or home addresses were available Friday evening.