Buncombe deputies arrest driver after Patton Avenue hit-and-run, child passenger in car

A Patton Avenue crash that left a moped rider injured turned into a felony case after deputies say the driver who fled from the scene was later caught with a 12-year-old passenger in the car.

Asheville police said the collision happened April 23 at Patton Avenue and NC 63, one of the city’s busiest west-side corridors. The moped and its rider, identified in a court document as Cameron Ferguson, were still at the scene when the other vehicle drove off. Investigators later determined the moped had been rear-ended.

The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office said the crash was witnessed by deputies, who pursued the fleeing vehicle and took the driver into custody. The suspect was identified as 39-year-old Joshua Thomas Justice. He was charged with felony flee to elude, felony hit and run, driving while license revoked, reckless driving, and failing to reduce speed to avoid a collision.

Court records reportedly say Justice was trying to elude Deputy Onderdonk when he fled, and that he had a 12-year-old in the car. That detail adds another layer of concern to a case that already involved a vulnerable road user on Patton Avenue, where drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and moped riders share a corridor that carries heavy daily traffic.

Ferguson reported an injury but declined medical treatment at the scene. Even without an ambulance transport, the crash shows how quickly a routine traffic collision can escalate into a public-safety incident involving a felony pursuit, a child passenger and a vulnerable rider.

The case lands in a corridor already marked by deadly crashes. At Patton Avenue and North Louisiana Avenue, a fatal hit-and-run on April 8-9, 2025 killed Tyler Michael White and injured another pedestrian. Another pedestrian died at the same intersection on June 10, 2025, and Asheville police Chief Mike Lamb said that death was the fourth pedestrian death in the city that year.

City leaders have already acknowledged the danger. Asheville released a Downtown Patton Avenue Corridor Feasibility Study in July 2025 recommending safer crossings, protected bike lanes and roundabouts. The broader I-26 Connector project also includes a new interchange at Patton Avenue, keeping the corridor at the center of Asheville’s traffic-safety debate.