Wreck kills one Gaston man, injures another (video)

Chris Bolen witnessed the fatal impact of two vehicles colliding in front of his North Aspen Street home in Lincolnton Wednesday morning.

“It was just a big old boom. The tires exploded. Then you heard stuff flying everywhere,” said Bolen.

A Lincoln Town Car sedan crossed into the center lane then drifted over into the path of an oncoming Direct TV van that was traveling in the opposite direction.

Chunks of car and van scattered hundreds of feet from the point of impact and the driver of the car died instantly, according to Sgt. W.S. Vaughn with the Lincolnton Police Department.

“This is one of the worst wrecks I’ve ever been involved with,” he said at the scene of the crash while firefighters cleared debris from the street.

Police don’t yet know what caused 74-year-old Henry Hunter Farish of Dallas to cross the center lane into the path of the van.

Dustin Braden, 22, also of Dallas, was driving the work van and was airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.

Bolen said he saw the car barreling down Aspen Street, a stretch of road that has a 45 mph speed limit. He said the vehicle appeared to be going 80 mph to 90 mph.

“I thought it was a police car it had flew by so bad,” he said.

The van flew into the air upon impact and landed in a neighbor’s yard, one of its tires rolling a couple hundred feet before stopping in a carport.

Bolen went to the scene to help.

He reached through the van’s peeled back door and held Braden’s head while the injured man was still seat-belted in and gasoline streamed out of the vehicle.

“People was like, ‘You got to get away. You got to get away.’ But I knew he needed someone with him,” said Bolen.

Law enforcement didn’t know if Braden’s injuries were life-threatening but said the man was in surgery last they checked.

A spokeswoman for Carolinas Medical Center had no information to give on Braden.

Vaughn said Farish may have suffered a medical episode that caused him to veer out of the proper lane.

There were no passengers in either vehicle.

The N.C. Highway Patrol will conduct a reconstruction of the wreck to determine the speed each vehicle was traveling.

Aspen Street was closed for more than two hours while vehicles and debris were cleared.

You can reach Diane Turbyfill at 704-869-1817.