State troopers are looking into whether a sudden medical issue caused an 83-year-old driver to lose control moments before a fatal single-vehicle crash on Tuesday night. The wreck shut down a major stretch of Benson Hardee Road for more than two hours while emergency crews worked the scene.
The victim, Joseph Larry Norris, was driving westbound in a Chevrolet Equinox when his SUV crossed over the yellow line around 7:32 p.m. Troopers say the vehicle left the left side of the roadway without any clear sign of braking or corrective steering.
Investigators confirmed that neither speed nor alcohol played any role in the crash. That leaves a medical episode behind the wheel as the primary line of inquiry for officers working to piece together what happened in the seconds before the vehicle went off the pavement.
After leaving the road, the Equinox hit a drainage ditch and broke two large fence posts. The vehicle continued moving down the fence line, where it hit and severed an outdoor gas line.
The broken gas line sparked a fire at the back of the SUV. Firefighters arrived quickly and managed to pull Norris from the vehicle, but emergency medical workers could not save him, declaring him dead on the scene.
The North Carolina State Highway Patrol closed Benson Hardee Road in both directions for roughly two and a half hours. Crash reconstruction teams documented the tire tracks, the damaged fence line, and the ruptured gas utility to map out the SUV’s exact path.
The investigation remains open as troopers await official reports from state medical examiners. Officers hope those findings will confirm whether a health emergency occurred before the SUV veered across the center line.
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