Three killed in Johnston County wreck

State troopers said Douglas Ray Baldwin, 46, of Wild Jasmine Court in Willow Spring, was driving west at a high speed when he ran off Dupree Road and struck a tree just before 10 p.m.

Witnesses said they heard a boom just before the crash and then saw the car flip before impact. The car split, they said, and glass was embedded in the tree more than 12 feet high.

"The magnitude and the damage to the vehicle – I've never seen anything quite like that in my lifetime, and that was echoed even through some of the response personnel last night," Joe Reardon, who lives near the wreck site, said.

Baldwin along with his passengers, Tony Ray Collins, 38, and Willie James McNair, 57, both of Panther Lake Road in Willow Spring, died at the scene.

Alcohol is suspected as a factor in the wreck, authorities said, and only McNair was wearing a seat belt.

The wreck was the third in the region to claim lives over the weekend.

Law We, 26, of Carrboro, died Saturday afternoon when he struck several trees on Old Greensboro Road in Chapel Hill.

In Raleigh, Darnell Marquise Johnson, 25, died early Saturday after losing control of his car and crashing on southbound Capital Boulevard near Interstate 440, police said.