A 25-year-old man is dead after driving off the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center, about 20 miles northeast of Asheville.
Blue Ridge Parkway rangers say they believe the wreck, which was reported shortly after 8 p.m. Monday, was a suicide, according to Chief Ranger Neal Labrie, who is based out of Asheville.
"We have no suspicions other than suicide at this point," he told the Citizen Times at the scene of the wreck Tuesday morning. "We have a report from associates of (the driver) that that was his intention."
Man dies in crash on Blue Ridge Parkway
The driver was headed north on the parkway when he launched his white sedan off an embankment just south of the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center, at Milepost 364. The car came to rest in a thicket of trees 250 feet beneath the roadway, parkway spokeswoman Caitlin Worth said Tuesday morning.
A person who witnessed the car drive over the embankment called park rangers to report the crash at 8:07 p.m., Labrie said.
While park rangers were en route to the scene, they received a tip from a woman who knew the driver and was worried he was going to attempt suicide near Craggy Gardens. Worth said rangers have confirmed that tip was regarding the man who died there Monday, "but the cause of death is still under investigation," she said.
There are 350-360 wrecks along the 469-mile parkway each year, according to Labrie, but wrecks like this are fairly rare and often an indicator of suicide.
"Usually the wrecks like this are self-directed," he said.
Family and friends of the driver gathered at the scene of the wreck Monday night, according to Labrie, who was unable to say where the man was from.
First responders were on scene until about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, when they recovered the body. Due to the rough terrain and steep incline, the effort was difficult, Labrie said.
Several agencies helped with the recovery, including the fire departments of Reems Creek, Reynolds, Riceville and Weaverville, according to Labrie.
"It was a pretty complicated process to get down to him," he said. "Those guys worked real hard last night, I know that."
Rescuers used two drones with infrared cameras to help them find the crash site in the dark. The car is not visible from the road, heading north. From street level, there is no easily discernible evidence that a wreck happened at all.
The white car is still lodged in a thicket of trees at the base of a retaining wall near the visitor center, and it will remain there until Wednesday morning. Worth said that a crane will pull the car from its resting place, a feat that Labrie said could prove tricky.
The retaining wall near the car is critical to the road above and was only recently repaired. A couple of towing companies visited the scene of the wreck Tuesday to determine options for removing the vehicle, Labrie said, noting that any option that could damage the retaining wall would not work.
"That's a pretty integral retaining wall to this roadway. It holds up the whole hillside," he said.
A stretch of the parkway between mile marker 367 and the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center will be closed for the crane beginning at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, Worth said. It is set to reopen after the vehicle has been removed.
