Impairment is suspected to be a factor in the crash.
North Carolina State Highway Patrol
A 76-year-old man from Apex drove across the center line of Optimist Farm Road near Holly Springs, North Carolina, a little after 9:30 a.m. Saturday and into a group of about 30 cyclists. One rider died. The Holly Springs fire chief counted 22 others hurt, seven sent to trauma centers and 15 to local hospitals.
Early reports said at least 12 riders were injured, and that figure is still on some pages. The charges against the driver, Donald Robert Morris-Jones, reach eight people, not 23. We set the two lists side by side.
| Charge | Counts | Who it appears to cover |
|---|---|---|
| Felony death by vehicle | 1 | The rider who died |
| Felony serious injury by vehicle | 7 | The seven riders the Highway Patrol called seriously injured |
| Felony hit-and-run, serious injury or death | 8 | Those seven plus the rider who died |
| Driving while impaired | 1 | Not tied to any one rider |
| Reckless driving | 1 | Not tied to any one rider |
| Driving left of center | 1 | Not tied to any one rider |
| No count listed so far | 15 | Riders taken to local hospitals with less serious injuries |
Eight Counts for Twenty-Three People
The matching is arithmetic. Eight hit-and-run counts is seven seriously hurt plus one dead, and seven serious-injury counts lines up with the seven riders the Highway Patrol called seriously injured. Nothing on the list reaches the other 15. Charges filed on day one are a floor, and more can be added.
Investigators have not said what impaired the driver, and no test results have been released. Impairment is the Highway Patrol’s word, and the DWI count is the state’s allegation. We found no statement from Morris-Jones or a lawyer for him.
We think those 15 riders belong in this story as people who were hit by a car, not as the remainder left after the felonies are counted. A charge sheet answers what can be proved on day one. It does not say who was in the road.
It comes eleven weeks after a driver hit nine riders from Milligan University’s cycling team in Tennessee and killed two students. That charge sheet carried seven counts for nine people hit, and the district attorney said more could follow. Watch whether the Wake County file grows to match the number of riders on that road.