A Dublin-area woman has been charged with driving while impaired after a single-vehicle wreck killed a man Monday.

Trooper C.M. Hardee of the N.C. Highway Patrol said Jerome Eric Britt, also known as Ricky or Leroy, was killed when the 1984 Dodge sport utility in which he was a passenger went off the road, overturned, and collided with a large tree. He was 52 and lived on 2245 Lyons Landing Road, near Dublin.

Lindsay Michelle Hardy, 20, was charged with driving while impaired. She could face additional charges, the trooper said. Hardy lives on Owen Hill Road.

Hardy and another woman, Monica May Reaves, 18, were seriously hurt in the crash, but their injuries are not life-threatening. Reaves and Hardy have the same address, Hardee said.

Trooper Hardee said the driver was headed south on Owen Hill Road at around 60 miles per hour when the crash occurred, approximately three-tenths of a mile from Lyon Landing Road.

"None of them were far from home at all," Hardee said.

Hardy apparently went off the road and lost control of the SUV.

"We don't know exactly what happened yet," Hardee said. "She just swerved."

Because the roof of the truck was crushed against a tree, rescue personnel had to use extrication equipment to get the victims out.

Due to the extensive damage to the vehicle, it took rescuers over two hours to extricate the victims. Traffic was detoured down Lyon Landing and Suggs-Taylor Roads away from the crash scene.

Crash trucks from Station 57 Tar Heel and Station 55 Elizabethtown assisted Station 53 Dublin with the removal. Elizabethtown Rescue and Bladen County EMS also responded.

A critical care ambulance from New Hanover Health Systems Vitalink transported Britt to Bladen County Hospital. Hardee said he did not know if Britt died at the scene or enroute to the hospital.

The Dodge was demolished.

Britt was the sixth person to die on Bladen County roads this year. The last fatality was a teenager killed Sept. 21 when she pulled her moped into the path of a pickup on U.S. 701 near the N.C. 210 intersection. Last year, a total of 13 were killed in vehicle crashes in the county.

Monday's wreck is still being investigated.

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