Pedestrian killed on Raleigh overpass crash, driver charged in case

A 59-year-old pedestrian died after a blue Honda CR-V struck him on the South Wilmington Street bridge over South Saunders Street, sent him onto the roadway below and triggered a chain of impacts that led Raleigh police to charge a 22-year-old driver in the case.

Officers responded around 3:26 a.m. to the top of the bridge, and the crash was called in around 3:30 a.m. near Ileagnes Road. Police said Robert Jackson Henderson was hit at the bridge level, fell onto South Saunders Street and was then struck by several other vehicles. He died at the scene. The wreck closed South Saunders Street and South Wilmington Street for several hours, underscoring how one collision on a bridge can disrupt a major commuter corridor before sunrise.

Investigators later charged Chandler Evan Brown, 22, with felony death by motor vehicle, felony hit-and-run resulting in serious injury or death, driving while impaired, failure to maintain lane control and failure to reduce speed. Police said the suspect vehicle, a blue Honda CR-V with heavy front-end damage, was left on the bridge while Brown fled on foot before later being taken into custody. Court records show Brown remained in the Wake County Detention Center under a $250,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

The case is also likely to renew scrutiny of South Saunders Street and nearby bridge approaches, where pedestrian crashes have repeatedly turned deadly. WRAL has reported a January 2024 fatal pedestrian crash on Hammond Road near the Interstate 40 overpass and an October 2024 pedestrian death on South Saunders Street, adding to the picture of a corridor built for fast-moving traffic but hostile to people on foot.

That pattern matters in Raleigh, where bridge crossings and multilane arterials can leave pedestrians exposed to high speeds, limited refuge and poor recovery time when a driver loses control. The combination of a bridge, a fall to the roadway below and secondary strikes made this crash especially severe, and it is the kind of tragedy that can push city and state officials to revisit lane control, speed management, barriers and safer crossing design before another pedestrian is lost on the same stretch.