Collision kills NCSU students, teen

A Sanford man is in Lee County jail charged with DWI and three counts of involuntary manslaughter

SANFORD -- Two N.C. State University students and a 16-year-old boy were killed in a head-on collision with a drunken driver Friday, according to authorities.

Pastor Sanchez, 55, of Sanford was driving west on N.C. 42, nearly five miles east of Sanford, about 5:10 p.m. when he swerved left into the oncoming lane, according to State Trooper K.T. Hill.

Sanchez' 1999 Dodge Intrepid struck head-on a 1990 Toyota Corolla station wagon driven by Helen Meghan Hughes, 22, of Summerville, S.C.

Hughes and her front-seat passenger, Jennifer Elaine Carter, 18, of Jacksonville were pronounced dead at the scene. The collision also injured Hughes' back-seat passenger, Benjamin Richard Leonard, 16, of Sanford. Leonard was taken to Central Carolina Hospital for surgery, where he died of his injuries.

Leonard was Hughes' stepbrother, Hill said.

Hill said Sanchez was treated for a broken arm at Central Carolina Hospital. He was charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter and driving while impaired.

He was being held Saturday at the Lee County jail in lieu of $75,000 secured bond.

Hill said Sanchez' only prior motor-vehicle offense was a charge of driving without an operator's license.

Hill said Hughes and Carter were N.C. State University students. He didn't know where they had been heading, although they were driving east toward Raleigh.

On Saturday, friends, relatives and the youth group at Carter's church, First Baptist Church of Jackonsville, gathered at the family's home to comfort her parents.

"She was a personification of purity," said Marilyn Ledoux, a family friend. "We know she's with Jesus now."

Ledoux said Carter had gone to N.C. State to study to become a teacher, possibly in English. Carter was an English major.

The Northside High School graduate was a freshman living in the honors dorm at N.C. State, Ledoux said.

"Jenny was a very capable, bright young woman," she said.

While attending Grace Community Church on N.C. State's campus, Carter met Hughes, Ledoux said.

Before coming to Raleigh, Hughes had lived in Summerville in the home of Jo Fabian, 77.

Fabian said Hughes had been teaching at a church day care center before moving to Raleigh 10 or 11 months ago to be near her sister and stepbrother. Fabian said Hughes hoped to get a job here working as an emergency medical technician.

"She cared a lot about her brother," Fabian said.

(News researcher Susan Ebbs contributed to this report.)