POWELLSVILLE – A mid-morning wreck south of Powellsville has claimed the life of two people in a single-vehicle accident.

North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper Jeremy Reid told the News-Herald the accident occurred on U.S. 13 two-tenths of a mile south of Powellsville.

Trooper Reid says at about 10:35 a.m. on Thursday, 62-year-old Rubiart Vinson of Ahoskie was operating a 2005 Dodge Stratus with two passengers when the accident took place. Reid says Vinson’s car was traveling northbound on US 13 and somehow veered left of the center line into the left-hand lane. The vehicle continued traveling left off the road into a ditch and from there struck a utility pole, then struck a tree before bursting into flame.

Members of the Powellsville Fire Department were called and arrived at the accident scene along with emergency personnel.

Vinson was pronounced dead at the scene. Also killed was 41-year-old Michelle Knight, also of Ahoskie, who was a passenger in the back seat of the car.

Another passenger, 46-year-old Curtis Cofield of Ahoskie, was treated at the scene and later airlifted to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville.

Highway Patrol says the accident was the sixth fatality so far in 2013 in the district, which includes Bertie, Hertford, and Gates counties. It is the fifth fatality in Bertie County for the same period this year.