WILKES COUNTY, N.C. — A Forysth County sheriff’s deputy was killed in a single-vehicle crash near Ronda in Wilkes County on Sunday morning, the Winston-Salem Journal reports. Investigators said his pickup truck flipped three times.
Hayden Wesley “Wes” Church, 35, was driving north on U.S. 421 near Clingman Road when he veered left into the median of the road around 6:15 a.m., Trooper K.W. Dean of the N.C. Highway Patrol said. Church overcorrected as he came back onto the four-lane highway, and his 2002 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck overturned, rolling three times before going off the right side of the road, over an embankment and into a wooded area, Dean said.
Church, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown from the vehicle and suffered massive injuries, Dean said. Church, who lived in Millers Creek, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Church joined the county sheriff’s office in January 2015 and was a full-time deputy assigned to the Judicial Services/Courtroom Division. He was off duty at the time of the accident.