COLERAIN – An elderly Bertie County man tragically lost his life in a single vehicle auto accident near here Friday.

Thomas Wynn, 83, of the Elm Grove community died as result of injuries sustained in the accident, which occurred shortly past 1 p.m. on Meadow Road near the Luther Brown Road.

According to North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper J.V. Reid, Wynn was operating a 1998 Chevrolet passenger car. Reid’s investigation of the accident scene revealed that Wynn’s vehicle entered a curve, traveled off the right side of the road where the car first impacted a roadside ditch, then an irrigation ditch before overturning.

“The driver was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the vehicle,” Reid said, adding that Wynn died at the scene of the accident.

Trooper Reid listed exceeding safe speed for a curve as a contributing factor to the fatal mishap.

The fatality was the ninth of the year on roadways within the NCHP’s Troop A / District II area, which covers Bertie, Gates and Hertford counties. Of those nine traffic fatalities, five have occurred in Bertie County.