IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — The North Carolina Highway Patrol confirms a 1-year-old boy was killed after he was ejected from a golf cart that struck a pothole.
Troopers report the accident happened on Sunday at around 5:40 p.m. Officials said a golf cart was traveling north on Pintail Run Lane when it struck a pothole. This caused a mechanical malfunction in the steering wheel and the golf cart overturned, troopers said.
According to officials, there were three adults and four children on the golf cart at the time. All of them were family members.
The driver and right front passenger were both holding 1-year-old boys. An adult and two three-year-old girls were on the rear-facing seat in the back.
Troopers said the occupants were ejected, except for the 3-year-olds who had on seat belts.
All passengers were transported by EMS to Lake Norman Regional Medical Center. Kipton Jester, 1, was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The other children and adults had varying levels of non-life threatening injuries. No charges are expected for the driver of the golf cart.
The stretch of road where the crash happened is not maintained by the state, so neighbors like neighbor Stump Lewis are responsible for fixing potholes themselves.
“We try to keep it up and we do will put blacktop patch and put it in the holes,” Lewis told NBC Charlotte.
They have asked for DOT help, Lewis said.
In fact, Lewis says the father of the one-year-old child who died in the crash was the one who had been appealing to the state for months to take over the maintenance of the road.
“He had the state come down and look at it but the state said we had to bring it up to state specs before they could take it over," Lewis said. "It’s got to be widened, re-blacktopped. That’s just a lot of money.”
What was once just an annoyance is now a deadly danger far too real, a family forever changed by a dip in the pavement.
“It’s tough especially on a weekend where family is all getting together," Lewis said, adding, "I know they’re just going out of their minds right now.”