Driver killed after fleeing car and hurdling over I-77 barrier during NC police pursuit
A Georgia driver died during a police pursuit on Interstate 77 in Mooresville early Friday after he left his car, hurdled over a highway barrier and was hit by an oncoming driver, a North Carolina Highway Patrol trooper said.
Kameen Odai Thomas, the 22-year-old driver from Conyers, Georgia, died at the scene, Master Trooper Christopher Casey said in a news release Saturday morning. The other driver wasn’t hurt, Casey said.
Mooresville Police were pursuing Thomas about 2 a.m. on southbound I-77, the trooper said. Officers deployed stop sticks that stopped Thomas’ car in the southbound toll lane, near I-77 Brawley School Road exit 35 at Lake Norman, Casey said.
It wasn’t immediately known Saturday why police were pursuing Thomas.
Thomas then jumped across the concrete barrier of the toll roads and was hit by a driver in the northbound toll lane, Casey said.
A passenger in Thomas’ car left when Thomas did and hasn’t been found, Casey said.
Both toll lanes were closed for about three hours as troopers investigated the incident.
Saturday afternoon, Mooresville officers responded to another fatality, this one involving a single-car wreck at N.C. 150 and Rolling Hill Road, at I-77 Exit 36.
About 4:20 p.m., a driver died after turning onto Rolling Hill Road and performing what police described as “a careless and reckless traffic maneuver at a high rate of speed.”
The driver wasn’t wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the vehicle, according to a Mooresville Police Department news release.
The driver, 64-year-old Alan Ray Lorek of Mooresville, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
