Overturned vehicle crashes send two to hospitals

Two wrecks involving overturned vehicles sent two people to separate hospitals on Thursday morning.

A Cherry Point man was airlifted to Pitt Memorial in Greenville after overturning his vehicle around 7:30 a.m. on U.S. 70 near Stately Pines.

Vincent Catanzano, 20, suffered a head injury and was flown to Greenville by a Pedro rescue helicopter dispatched from Cherry Point. His condition was not immediately available.

Trooper C.A. Taylor with the N.C. Highway Patrol said Catanzano was traveling east on U.S. 70 when he ran off the road into the center median and overturned in the westbound lane. No other vehicles were involved in the crash.

Taylor said the vehicle came to rest on its wheels in the ditch off the westbound lanes of the highway.

The roof on Catanzano’s 1991 Jeep Cherokee caved in during the rollover.

“The A pillar was crunched in just about the place where his head would be,” Taylor said.

Both lanes of westbound U.S. 70 were stopped to allow the helicopter to land and take off, backing up traffic two to three miles to Tucker Creek.

Catansano, who was traveling alone, was charged with reckless driving and failure to maintain lane control, Taylor said.

In another wreck, a Newport woman was treated and released from the hospital after overturning her car on Catfish Lake Road just after 9 a.m. Thursday morning.

Cristina Powers, 22, was transported to CarolinaEast Medical Center in New Bern, said Trooper S.F. Brown of the N.C. Highway Patrol. She was treated and released.

Powers was headed south on Catfish Lake Road when she hit some ruts in the road, went off the left side, overcorrected and ran off the right side and overturned. No other vehicles were involved.

Powers has been charged with speeding, driving with a revoked license, a registration violation and driving too fast for conditions, Brown said.

Her 2007 Toyota Corolla sustained minor damage due to the soft, wet terrain into which the car landed.

The wreck happened 3.7 miles from U.S. 70 on an unpaved portion of the road.