An 82-year-old Waynesville driver faces criminal charges after a tragic traffic error took the life of a motorcyclist on a busy mountain highway. The North Carolina State Highway Patrol cited Lola Pauline Ernesti following a deadly mid-day crash on U.S. 23/74 in Haywood County.
The collision happened shortly past noon on Friday, September 18, near mile marker 97 close to Waynesville. State troopers reported that Ernesti was driving her Honda CR-V along the highway when she failed to yield the right of way to oncoming traffic.
Riding west on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle at that exact moment was 55-year-old Jason Marcus Hughes of Canton. Hughes was a retired Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office corporal who previously worked to take dangerous drivers off the road with the DWI Task Force.
The SUV hit the motorcycle hard, knocking it off the left side of the pavement. The bike slammed into a guardrail along the roadside before stopping.
First responders arrived at the scene quickly, but the impact was severe. Hughes suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the crash site.
Troopers charged Ernesti at the scene with misdemeanor death by vehicle along with failure to yield the right of way. Investigators noted that impairment was not suspected in the incident.
The crash slowed traffic along U.S. 23/74, a vital travel route for the Asheville metropolitan area. State troopers are still looking into all factors that led to the fatal failure to yield.
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