Two men killed in head-on collision

Pickup crosses line on N.C. 98

Two men, each marking their birthdays this weekend, crossed paths in a fatal encounter on a Durham County highway Saturday, when the pickup trucks they were driving crashed head-on.

Darnell Selma Holeman, 60, of 2407 Damascus Church Road in Chapel Hill, and Dwight Sherron, 33, of 5217 Durham Road in Raleigh, were pronounced dead at the scene. A third man was injured.

The wreck happened about 9:20 a.m. as Holeman was driving a gray 1989 Ford F150 east on N.C. 98 near Falls Lake in Durham, two miles from the Wake County line, said Trooper D.F.X. Smith of the state Highway Patrol.

As the gray pickup crossed a small bridge over Lick Creek, witnesses watched the truck veer left over the yellow dividing line, Smith said. The truck continued directly into the path of Sherron's westbound red Nissan.

The trucks were estimated to be traveling at 50 mph, under the speed limit, when they crashed head-on, Smith said.

Medics took Holeman's passenger, 55-year-old William Flowers, to Duke Hospital. He suffered head injuries but was expected to survive, Smith said. He had fallen asleep during the ride to work and didn't know what caused the crash, he told Smith.

Firefighters had to cut away pieces of the trucks to recover the bodies of Holeman and Sherron. Smith said he hopes an autopsy on Holeman will show whether a medical problem caused him to veer into oncoming traffic.

"There was nothing to indicate he reacted in any way," Smith said. "There were no skid marks. If he was awake, he would have jerked the wheel."

Holeman spent the better part of the past two years fighting cancer, said his sister, Sylvia Sales. In November, Holeman's doctors gave him a clean bill of health, she said.

Holeman would have turned 61 today. Sherron turned 33 on Saturday. Both were on their way to work, family members said.

Because the road was blocked to traffic, relatives of both men waited about a mile away, their eyes shielded from the wreckage.

Sales stood on the side of the road in a black pinstripe pantsuit. She folded her arms while she cried. Near her, a man had stopped to learn more about the accident. He was worried, he said, because his son takes N.C. 98 to work. The man put his arm around Sales' shoulders and squeezed her gently. He repeatedly called his son on his cell phone, but there was no answer. He paced and chewed a toothpick.

He even helped a sheriff's deputy redirect motorists to a detour at Southview Road.

Just before noon, the man's cell phone finally rang. After a few silent moments, the phone dropped from his hand. "NO!" he shouted. He fell sideways and banged a fist into the ground.

The sheriff's deputy stopped traffic. He walked over to the man and placed a gloved hand on his shoulder. The man was Dwight Sherron's father.