Wreck leaves one dead in Aurora 

Published 3:59 pm Tuesday, May 24, 2022

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A fatal, single-vehicle wreck left one dead near Aurora on Monday (May 23), North Carolina State Highway Patrol (NCSHP) Troop A District IV confirmed. The wreck occurred around 4:14 p.m. on NC 33 at the intersection of NC 306 (about three miles west of Aurora).

Destiny Cooper was driving a black, 2005 Ford Explorer with seven passengers. Six of the passengers were children, but the seventh passenger was 81-year-old Earnest Baker, according to a rough draft of a report from NCSHP. 

Cooper was treated on Monday at CarolinaEast Medical Center in New Bern. She has been discharged, NCSHP shared. Three of the children were treated at CarolinaEast and were discharged. The remaining three children have life-threatening injuries and are being treated at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville. 

The names of the children have not been released from NCSHP. 

Cooper traveled off the right side of the roadway and overcorrected, according to the report. She crossed the center line and overcorrected a second time running off the road on the right hand side again. She hit a ditch bank and overturned twice. 

NCSHP said charges are pending against Cooper. The charges have yet to be determined.