Two people were critically injured Thursday morning when a motorcycle and pick-up collided on N.C. 10.
Witnesses estimate the motorcycle was going more than 100 miles per hour when it came over a hill and slammed into a 1989 Mazda truck at about 9:50 a.m. Thursday.
The motorcycle's driver and passenger were thrown from the bike.
The passenger was thrown 154 feet from the motorcycle, said Trooper C.M. Trouille of the Highway Patrol. The driver was thrown 97 feet.
The truck was traveling west on N.C. 10. The driver stopped to make a left turn and had about 550 feet of visibility before the peak of a slight hill at the intersection, Trouille said.
An Iredell trooper in a marked car was on his way to Newton for a meeting and was behind the truck when it stopped, Trouille said.
The trooper said he never saw the motorcycle.
"I didn't know what I could do. I was trying to help everybody," said Derek Coley, a witness to the accident.
Coley saw the accident from about 10 feet away. He said he was putting on his seatbelt before pulling out of the Country Market at the corner of N.C. 10 and Bethany Church Road when it happened.
Tylor Bynum was with Coley in the car. She said she watched the truck stop and the driver look before it began to make the turn to drive into the parking lot when the motorcycle hit it.
"The motorcycle had to be going way over the speed limit," Bynum said. "I thought it was going to hit my car."
Bynum said her friend was a passenger on the motorcycle.
Richard Duane Matthews said his best friend, Bruce Offenbacker Jr., 24, of Catawba, was driving the motorcycle. Offenbacker's girlfriend, Jasmine Shope, 20, of Newton, was the passenger.
"I'm just praying for them, that everything will be OK," he said. "They're not just friends. They're family."
Matthews said he and Offenbacker were planning to paint a car together and he'd just gotten a text from Offenbacker saying he would be there in two minutes and was coming from near Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet in Newton about four miles away.
About a minute after he got the text, Matthews heard sirens wailing past the shop. He called Offenbacker and got worried when he didn't answer.
Matthews went to the scene and found his friend.
"Bruce was talking — he just couldn't move," Matthews said. "He said he couldn't feel his legs."
Matthews said Offenbacker had been riding motorcycles for about a year and a half before Thursday's accident. He'd had his current motorcycle for about six months.
"I just hope it's not their fault," Matthews said. " I want people to realize you can't play around on those bikes — you need to take them seriously."
Offenbacker and Shope were taken to Catawba Regional Medical Center, where they were met by a Life Flight helicopter. They were flown to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, said Chief Gary Sigmon of the Claremont Fire Department.
Shope was listed in critical condition. Offenbacker has multiple broken bones and fractures. Trouille characterized his injuries as serious but not life-threatening.
A Claremont couple and their teenage son were in the truck. The mother and son were taken to Catawba Valley Medical Center with minor injuries, Trouille said.
The truck's driver, Isaiah Edgell, 44, refused to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. The truck's passengers were not identified at the scene.
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