I-85 Crash Near Burlington Clears After Lane Closures Sunday Evening
Sunday's I-85 crash at mile marker 140 near Burlington cleared, but the same corridor has logged five incidents since February including one that killed a Burlington woman.
A crash at mile marker 140 on I-85 North cleared Sunday evening within hours, but the Burlington-Graham corridor has logged at least five comparable incidents since February 2025, cementing a roughly 5-mile stretch as one of the most reliably disrupted segments of highway in the NC Piedmont.
Sunday's lane closure is the latest in a documented pattern between MM 140 and MM 145. The NC-62/Alamance Road interchange at Exit 143 is the corridor's most active trouble spot: a Father's Day crash there closed the left two lanes from 3:17 p.m. to 4:16 p.m., backing traffic 3-4 miles, and a March 31, 2025 multi-vehicle wreck at the same marker shut three lanes for roughly an hour during morning rush, pushing a 2.5-mile backup onto the interstate. A separate crash near Exit 145 at Maple Avenue in Graham closed all lanes from approximately 5:52 p.m. to 7:03 p.m. on a Saturday evening.
The February 19, 2025 pileup remains the corridor's worst recent incident. Approximately 53 vehicles collided near the I-40/I-85 split during a winter storm, killing Jerolyn Day Wilson, 78, of Burlington. A 44-year-old driver from Spartanburg, South Carolina was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle. North Carolina State Highway Patrol First Sgt. Christopher Knox confirmed the scale of the crash, which backed traffic onto I-40.
The I-85/I-40 overlap through Burlington compounds the risk: freight carriers and regional commuters share the same lanes, meaning each incident affects both delivery schedules and daily commutes with limited alternate routing. Crashes in the MM 140-143 zone have consistently resolved within one to two hours, but the recurring pattern points to peak vulnerability during weekend afternoon windows, roughly 3 to 7 p.m., and during winter weather events.
NHTSA designates traffic crashes as a primary public safety concern in Alamance County. For current conditions, NCDOT maintains live incident data at DriveNC.gov and posts real-time updates through its @NCDOT_I85 account. Drivers heading through Burlington on I-85 North can use NC-62/Alamance Road as a surface-level bypass between Graham and Burlington when interstate traffic stalls.
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