The third victim, a passenger in the vehicle hit by the car carrying the two Blowing Rock firefighters, died in a hospital 11 days after the collision.
Tyler Jordan Vance, 18, of Elk Park, was charged Thursday with one count each of misdemeanor death by vehicle and misdemeanor spontaneous speed competition, said N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper T.D. Brewer. Vance is free on a custody release with a court date set for Wednesday, Jan. 12 in McDowell County District Court.
The collision happened during heavy rains as people were leaving McDowell’s Fire & Rescue College. Brewer said shortly afterward that the collision involved a race between a Mustang carrying two Blowing Rock volunteer firefighters and a Camaro carrying two 17-year-old Avery County junior volunteer firefighters in which speeds approached 95 miles an hour.
Vance, who was 17 at the time, was the driver of the Camaro, according to the trooper. The name of the passenger has not been released.
The 2008 Ford Mustang driven by Jeremy Gordon Bolick, 23, of Lenoir went out of control on U.S. 221 North in Marion about 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 21. The Mustang started spinning across the five-lane highway and collided with an oncoming vehicle, according to the Highway Patrol.
Bolick and his passenger, Charles Thomas Wright, 20, of Blowing Rock were killed in the collision as the Mustang slammed sideways into a 2006 Chrysler driven by Cynthia White Bassett, 51, who lives part time in Marion and part time in Flagler Beach, Fla.
Her husband, Jeffrey Wilkes Bassett, 51, died in Asheville’s Memorial Mission Hospital 11 days after the crash. Cynthia was released after more than three weeks in the hospital.
Republished with permission of The Mcdowell News.
