Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

AHOSKIE – A single-vehicle accident near here Tuesday night claimed the life of an Aulander man.

Patrick O’Neal Morris, age 44, of Hollowell Road, was killed in the accident, which occurred at around 11:30 p.m. on Shortcut Road, approximately one-tenth of a mile south of the US 13 intersection.

According to a report filed by North Carolina State Highway Patrol Trooper J.V. Reid, Morris was operating a Volkswagen passenger car at a high rate of speed. The vehicle went left of center and then collided with a guardrail.

Reid said Morris died at the scene.

The fatality was the fourth of the year and the first in Hertford County within the Highway Patrol’s Troop A / District 2 area that also includes Bertie and Gates counties.