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LEWISTON WOODVILLE – Saturday morning’s winter weather is to blame for one death in the Roanoke-Chowan area.

Damonte Tillery, age 21 of Aulander, was tragically killed when he lost control of his vehicle on an icy road.

The single vehicle accident occurred on Francis Mill Road, 3.1 miles east of Lewiston Woodville. There, according to a report filed by North Carolina State Highway Patrol Trooper Hunter Mizelle, Tillery was operating a 2013 Kia passenger car northbound on Francis Mill Road shortly before 3 a.m.

According to Mizelle’s report, Tillery’s vehicle ran off the right side of the road where it initially made impact with a guardrail before striking a utility pole, then a ditch bank before coming to rest after colliding with a tree.

Mizelle listed exceeding safe speed for existing conditions as the contributing factor to the accident.

The fatal accident was the first this year in Bertie County and the second in the Highway Patrol’s Troop A District 2 area which also includes Hertford and Gates counties.