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Driver died after falling 30 meters off highway damaged by tornado
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Driver died after falling 30 meters off highway damaged by tornado

HAYWOOD COUNTY, NC (WBTV/Gray News) – An evening drive over the weekend turned into a disaster when a woman drove her SUV around barriers and crashed down an embankment on a tornado-damaged section of Interstate 40 in North Carolina.

The Junaluska Fire Department said the crash happened around 8 p.m. Saturday on eastbound I-40 near Dry Gap Ridge in Haywood County.

Firefighters said the driver of the SUV went around the blockade and crashed into the rock embankment before coming to rest on the passenger side of the vehicle, just along the banks of the Pigeon River.

Authorities estimated the SUV remained about 100 feet off the road.

Emergency crews used a rope to rescue the driver from the vehicle.

After the driver, who was the only person in the SUV, was released, he was taken by ambulance to the landing site and then flown to an area hospital.

The North Carolina State Highway Patrol later announced that the driver died as a result of the crash. Her name has been identified as Patricia Ann Mahoney, 62, of Southern Pines.

Multiple agencies responded to the crash, including the Cocke County Swiftwater Rescue Team out of Tennessee and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

A towing company was also called to pick up the SUV.

First responders were unharmed during the rescue.

“We want to remind Haywood County travelers that the large orange and white ‘Road Closed’ sign and concrete barriers are there for a reason, and one of those reasons is not to go around them,” the Junaluska Fire Department wrote on Facebook.

The crash was just a few miles from the Tennessee state line. North Carolina officials have said for weeks that I-40 remained closed after flooding caused by Hurricane Helene submerged much of the highway.