A local resident was killed in a two-vehicle wreck Saturday in northern Sampson County, resulting in charges against a Faison-area man.

Just moments after 8 a.m. Saturday, North Carolina State Highway Patrol authorities responded to a two-vehicle fatal collision on NC 55 at the intersection with Easy Street. According to reports, an AM General farm vehicle was traveling north on Easy Street when it reportedly failed to yield to a second vehicle, a Hyundai Sonata, that was traveling on N.C. 55.

The Hyundai struck the farm vehicle and both vehicles came to final rest just west of the intersection.

The driver of the farm vehicle, Victor Hugo Rojas Espejo, 46, of Faison, was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle and a yield violation. The driver of the Hyundai, William Anthony Artis, 59, of Warsaw, died as a result of his injuries.

He was belted and impairment is not suspected, according to reports from Trooper W.L. Silance, who investigated the fatal incident. There were no passengers in either vehicle.

Saturday’s deadly wreck was the eighth fatal collision of 2024 and the first since two people lost their lives in a Feb. 26 head-on collision on U.S. 421, north of Clinton. There were 28 deaths on Sampson County roads in all of 2023.