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MURFREESBORO – Traffic was detoured around a portion of the Murfreesboro Bypass (US 158/US 258) for eight hours on Friday following a crash that claimed three lives, including a husband and wife.

Jeffrey Clayton Collier, age 66, and his 63-year-old wife, Cindy, died in the accident along with Dwight Moss, age 65. All of the deceased victims listed addresses in Burlington, NC.

According to a report filed by North Carolina State Highway Patrol Trooper Jeremy Coltrain, Jeffrey Collier was operating a 1996 Freightliner Motor Home, traveling west on US 158 at approximately 6:45 p.m.

Meanwhile, a 2021 Kenworth tractor-trailer, owned by Commercial Ready Mix Products of Winton and driven by Marshall Cain, 65, of Aulander, was traveling south on US 258, approaching the intersection of the Bypass and NC 11 South.

Coltrain said the light at the intersection was green for the tractor-trailer, which was making a left-hand turn onto US 158 East.

“The tractor-trailer had an onboard camera that showed its driver having the green light at that intersection,” Trooper Coltrain said. “The driver of the motor home failed to stop at the red traffic signal and traveled underneath the trailer of the Commercial Ready Mix truck.”

Coltrain added that the estimated speed of the motor home just prior to the crash was 60 mph. All three of its occupants were killed on impact, he added.

Cain was transported to Vidant Roanoke-Chowan Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The Trooper said the weather was clear at the time of the crash.

“There was a rain shower a bit earlier and the road was still wet when the accident occurred,” Coltrain noted, adding that he didn’t think the damp asphalt played a role in causing the crash.

The Murfreesboro Fire Department, Murfreesboro Police, Hertford County EMS, the Hertford County Sheriff’s Office, and NC DOT all responded to the accident.

Coltrain said due to the amount of debris at the scene, the highway was closed until 3:12 a.m. Saturday.

The fatalities raised the motor vehicle death toll to 11 in the NCHP’s Troop A / District II area for 2021. Four of deaths have occurred in Hertford County.