“They were my best friends:” A Wake Forest intersection turns deadly

Story by Molly Horak.

Video by Amy Cockerham.

Photos by Katie Clark and Amy Cockerham.

It was supposed to be a happy afternoon at the pumpkin patch.

Dennis Abraham, his wife, Julie, and their 6-year-old son, Nicholas, piled into their Mercedes SUV for their annual outing. This year, the family was dressed up to get their picture taken; Julie loved the photos taken from within the haystacks scattered around the pumpkin patch.

Dennis was driving, and Julie and Nicholas sat in the backseat. Waze was pulled up on Dennis’ phone, the automated voice routing the Abraham family from their home in Durham through Wake County. This wasn’t an area they visited often. The roads were unfamiliar.

They were getting closer. Abraham pulled up to an intersection at Moores Pond Road and N.C. 98.

He looked both ways. Right. Left. Right.

He proceeded into the intersection.

Duke cardiologist, Dennis Abraham, lost his wife and 6-year-old son in a fatal car accident on October 26, 2019. Photo by Amy Cockerham.

***

The intersection of Moores Pond Road and N.C. 98 has long been deemed hazardous, said Ryan Chernoff, a trooper with the State Highway Patrol. Cars and trucks, often speeding much faster than the posted 55-mph limit, zip through this rural section of state highway near the border of Wake and Franklin counties, drivers unaware of the dangers at this particular crossing.

There is a stop sign on either side of Moores Pond Road, but traffic on N.C. 98 does not stop at the junction. Just before the intersection is a dip in the road — and from the stop sign, a car traveling through the dip is not always visible.  

Add in the fact that drivers are often in a rush and fail to yield right of way or fail to fully stop at the stop sign, and you have an intersection prone to collisions, Chernoff said.

In December 2016, a joint project between the Capitol Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Durham Chapel Hill Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization and the N.C. Department of Transportation began assessing the 27-mile long N.C. 98 corridor for safety improvements.

The study was conducted during an 18-month span and analyzed traffic volume, high-crash intersections, environmental impact, and bicycle and pedestrian accessibility, said Shelby Powell, deputy director of the Capitol Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The final report, released in October 2018, recommended the intersection at Moores Pond Road be converted into a four-way stop to address safety concerns identified by the public and the study’s technical and oversight teams.

In December – more than a year after the recommendation – the state Board of Transportation will consider adding stop signs on N.C. 98. But as it is now, only traffic on Moores Pond Road must stop at the intersection.

A view into the dangerous intersection at Moores Pond Road and Highway 98 in Youngsville, NC. Photo by Katie Clark.

***

Marc-Lee Hurd was in his garage the morning of Oct. 26, smoking a cigarette and preparing to do yardwork. A typical Saturday morning.

Then he heard the squeal of tires and the sickening crunch of metal as Abraham’s SUV collided with a GMC pickup truck.

Hurd ran into his front yard to try to help.

The couple in the pickup truck seemed to be moving. A few hundred feet away, he could see Dennis Abraham talking to someone. Calling for help, he presumed.

Hurd rushed over. Looking in the backseat, he saw Nicholas. Choking on blood.

He cut the boy’s seatbelt, trying to keep Nicholas’ head elevated. Trying to do anything to ease his pain.

Nicholas died moments later.

Then, Hurd noticed Julie Abraham, slumped over next to her son. She wasn’t moving.

He checked her pulse. Nothing.

The Abrahams never made it to the pumpkin patch. Instead of their idyllic excursion, it became a day of unimaginable pain.

Dennis Abraham, a Duke cardiologist, lost his family. Hurd watched a child die, unable to help. And the dangerous intersection — one where safety recommendations had been proposed and not yet implemented — saw its first fatalities.

Julie and Nicholas Abraham lost their lives in a fatal car accident on October 26, 2019. Photo courtesy of Dennis Abraham.

***

According to crash reports from the N.C. Department of Transportation and the State Highway Patrol, 25 accidents occurred at the N.C. 98 and Moores Pond Road intersection in the two-year period from Oct. 1, 2017 and Sept. 30, 2019. These dates do not include the fatal accident on Oct. 26.

At least two additional crashes occurred in November 2019.

The documents show 46 non-fatal injuries from 21 different crashes reported during this period.

The daily traffic count at the intersection is 9,800 vehicles, DOT spokesperson Marty Homan said. That’s one crash for every 286,160 vehicles — fewer than other intersections along N.C. 98, but still a high crash frequency, Powell said.

The N.C. 98 corridor study recommendations came out a year prior to the Oct. 26 collision. But funding for projects like the recommended four-way stop goes through a state prioritization system, structured with different tiers of funding projects can compete for, Powell said.

“It’s very competitive to get state funding put on these kinds of things,” she said. “There are smaller improvements that are able to be made as a result of these things. But then you have to take those into the context of the entire region and the relative need across the area and the limited funding.”

Markings from a seperate crash in late November remind passing motorists that this intersection is a common crash site. Photo by Katie Clark.

***

More than a month has passed since the fatal accident, and for everyone involved, the events of October 26 are inescapable.

The State Highway Patrol investigation concluded that Abraham failed to fully stop at the Moores Pond Road stop sign. He received a citation for a stop sign infraction.

Living life right now feels like walking around at the bottom of a pool, Abraham said. He doesn’t have much interest in advocating for changes to the intersection — he’s just trying to get up every morning to navigate this new world without his wife and son.

He’s thought back about the events leading up to the crash, if it was the result of a mistake he made. And every time, he doesn’t know if there was anything he did in driving that caused it to happen.

“If there was another stop sign, if it was a four-way intersection, if there was something…” Abraham’s voice trails off. “I spend a lot of time thinking about that. What if she drove? What if she was sitting in the front seat instead? What if we didn’t do the pumpkin patch that year? There’s a lot of things I think about. Some of those require municipal action. All of it is fantasy.”

Hurd is also haunted by the what-ifs. What if he had gotten to Nicholas sooner? What if he had done something differently?

“I dream about it,” Hurd said. “Sometimes I dream that I’m the one in the car. Sometimes the crash replays. Sometimes I dream that I’m the one driving and it’s my family I lost. I’m trying to move past it, to get back to everyday things. It’s just rough.”

In August, the Highway Safety Improvement Program set aside funds for a roundabout at the Moores Pond Road and N.C. 98 intersection, Homan said. The project is tentatively slated to start in 2022.

The state Board of Transportation will hear recommendations in early December to temporarily install an all-way stop at the site, Homan said. The all-way stop was in the works prior to the Abraham’s Oct. 26 crash, and, if approved, will be an interim measure until the roundabout is built.

Even if there was a four-way stop, Hurd doubts much will change. In “North Carolina speak,” he said, the 55-mph speed limit is more like 70 mph. Without something to physically slow drivers down, he suspects vehicles will keep speeding through.

If a four-way stop causes one driver to double-check before proceeding, Chernoff said, it’s a step in the right direction.

But for Dennis Abraham, it’s too late.

“Even if they put a jughandle or a four-way stop, it’s not going to bring my wife or my kid back,” he said. “They were both my best friends.”

Debris and scattered remnants of car crashes lie still in the middle of a busy intersection at the crossing of Moores Pond Road and Highway 98 in Youngsville, NC. Photo by Katie Clark.
Molly Horak

Molly Horak is a senior from Asheville, NC, majoring in Reporting and Political Science. She currently serves as executive producer of AcaDames podcast and hopes to pursue a career in reporting or nonprofit communications.

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