Four Family Members Dead, One Critically Injured In Crash Near Rocky Mount

An accident on Interstate 95 in Nash County in which a sport utility vehicle ran off the road and overturned resulted in four members of a family from South Carolina suffering fatal personal injuries.

The lone survivor of the accident, a 90-year-old woman, was transported to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, where she was listed in critical condition.

Shortly before 6 p.m. on May 29, the family was traveling south on I-95 when the 2004 Saturn Vue ran off the road into the wooded center median, collided with two pine trees, and overturned, coming to rest on the driver’s side, according to Sgt. E.D. Lemons of the North Carolina Highway Patrol.

The crash occurred near Rocky Mount, approximately 70 miles east of Raleigh.

The victims were the driver, 30-year-old Sylvester Pernell, and backseat passengers 28-year-old Jamal Pernell, 21-year-old Kimberly Pernell, and 55-year-old Georgia Pernell, all residents of Dillon, South Carolina.

The survivor, 90-year-old Annie Mae Brown, was in the front passenger seat.

Lemons said that Brown and Pernell were both wearing their seat belts, but the others were not.

Lemons said that troopers have yet to determine the cause of the accident, which remains under investigation.