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LEWISTON-WOODVILLE – One motorist was killed near here Monday morning after his vehicle rammed into the rear of a school bus that was slowing to make its first stop of the day at a residence on NC 11.

The Ahoskie office of the North Carolina Highway Patrol reported that 21-year-old Tyler Andre Graham of Kinston died at the scene.

“There were no students on the bus at the time of the accident as the bus driver was in the process of stopping to pick up the first student of the morning,” said NCHP First Sgt. Rodney Sawyer. “The driver of the bus – Deneatha Lassiter, age 51, of Lewiston – was transported to Vidant Bertie Hospital to be checked out, but she was not seriously injured.”

The accident, which occurred shortly before 7 a.m., was south of Lewiston-Woodville, near the intersection of NC 11 and Indian Woods Road. There, according to a report filed by NCHP Trooper J.O. Sampson, both Graham’s Honda Civic and the bus, owned by Bertie County Public Schools, were northbound on NC 11.

Sampson’s report showed that the bus driver had activated the yellow caution lights on the bus, warning other drivers that the bus was preparing to come to a stop.

Graham apparently could not slow down in time to avoid a collision, causing his car to rear-end the bus.

After impact, the car traveled off the road to the right, went through the yard of the residence where the student being picked-up by the bus resided, and came to rest in a farm field.

Only the northbound lane of NC 11 was blocked as emergency crews worked the accident scene.

The fatality was the 12^th of the year in the NCHP’s Troop A / District II area (Bertie, Gates and Hertford counties). Seven of those fatalities have occurred in Bertie County.