GATES – Monday’s blast of winter weather attributed to the death of a Gates County man.

Raymond Bernard Redmond, 69, of 138 Joe Henry Lane, Gates, died after he lost control of his vehicle on an icy stretch of Sand Banks Road (SR 1200) just south of the state line.

According to a report filed by North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper J.G. Williams, Redmond was operating a 1998 Ford Explorer east on Sand Banks Road, just a few miles from his home. The weather at that time was a mixture of sleet and snow, which was sticking to the road.

The vehicle crossed the center line of the roadway, at which point Redmond apparently overcorrected to bring it back into his lane of travel. The vehicle then traveled off the right side of the road where it first impacted a ditch, then a tree, before flipping onto its roof.

NCHP First Sgt. Mike Warren said that Redmond initially survived the crash, but later died at the scene. Warren said Redmond was not ejected from the vehicle, but it’s unknown if he was wearing a seatbelt.

“In this particular case, there were no signs we normally look for to determine if a driver or passenger in a vehicle was or was not properly restrained,” Warren stated. “The Medical Examiner at the scene also could not definitively determine if he was wearing a seat belt.”

Trooper Williams said that the accident was caused by exceeding safe speed due to the road conditions and overcorrecting/over steering.

The fatality was the fifth of the year in the Highway Patrol’s Troop A/District II area (Bertie, Gates and Hertford counties). It was the first motor vehicle fatality of 2014 in Gates County.