AHOSKIE – For the second time in less than one week, the Roanoke-Chowan area has lost a citizen due to an automobile accident.

The latest fatal crash was reported Sunday morning when a passing motorist spotted a vehicle in the bottom of a ravine along Flea Hill Road in Hertford County.

The driver of that vehicle, 31-year-old Steven Patrick Beale of Murfreesboro, was found deceased upon the arrival of emergency responders.

According to a report filed by North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper J.K. Jones, it appears that Beale lost control of a 1998 Lexus passenger car he was operating north on Flea Hill Road (SR 1142) approximately 7.5 miles northwest of Ahoskie.

That area of Flea Hill Road is approximately two-tenths of one mile from its intersection with Liverman Mill Road.

In his report, Jones stated that after traveling off the roadway, the vehicle initially collided with a tree, causing it to become airborne. It then struck another tree before impacting a cement drainage culvert. The vehicle came to rest turned on the driver’s side in the ravine.

Jones’ report showed that Beale was not restrained by a seatbelt and was partially ejected from the vehicle through its sunroof.

The report further stated that speed was a contributing factor in the fatal mishap.

“This marks the second straight fatal wreck where the victim was not wearing a seatbelt,” remarked First Sgt. Mike Warren of the Highway Patrol’s office in Ahoskie. “I would encourage all motorists to slow down and buckle up. Not only is wearing a seatbelt mandated by state law, but studies have shown that the survival rate is much higher in a vehicle accident if the driver and any and all passengers are properly restrained by a seat belt.”

The other recent fatal wreck Warren referenced occurred in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, Aug. 22 when 34-year-old Clinton Earl Clark Jr. died at the scene of a single vehicle accident that occurred on Republican Road (RP 1260) approximately four miles north of Windsor.

The accident involving Beale was the eighth fatality of the year for the Highway Patrol’s Troop A / District II area (Bertie, Gates and Hertford counties). Three of those fatalities have occurred in Hertford County.