Reckless driving crash on I-87 near Wendell flips Mazda, slows traffic
A speeding Dodge Charger flipped a Mazda carrying a mother and daughter near Wendell, closing I-87 for about an hour and backing up traffic both ways.
The wreck around 2:55 p.m. Saturday on Interstate 87 near Mile Marker 12.5 at Knightdale Eagle Rock Road showed how one reckless pass can clog a key eastern Wake County corridor in minutes. Trooper H. Gutierrez said a Raleigh man driving a red Dodge Charger was speeding when he struck a gray Mazda driven by a mother with her teenage daughter riding as a passenger. The impact sent the Mazda flipping into the median. No serious injuries were reported.
Fire crews and at least one ambulance responded as debris and the overturned car blocked the route just north of Wendell Falls Parkway. NCDOT cameras showed backups in both directions, and the inner lanes of I-87 stayed closed for about an hour before the highway reopened just before 4 p.m. The driver of the Dodge Charger was cited for reckless driving, a citation that points directly to speed as a factor in the crash.
The location matters for Wake County commuters. I-87 in this stretch is part of a 12.9-mile partially completed interstate corridor in eastern Wake County, and most of the completed route is known as the Knightdale Bypass. The road is a major link for drivers moving between Wendell, Knightdale and southeast Raleigh, where afternoon traffic can build quickly and a single lane shutdown can ripple across the commute. On much of the completed route, the speed limit is 70 mph, leaving little margin when a driver is going too fast for conditions.
The crash also fits a larger safety picture in North Carolina. The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s 2024 Crash Facts report says speeding contributed to 21.4% of all crash fatalities statewide, and the agency’s Traffic Safety Unit uses crash data to identify patterns and high-risk corridors. Saturday’s wreck did not turn fatal, but it still reflected the same danger transportation officials are trying to reduce: a high-speed collision, a family vehicle caught in the impact, and a corridor that can seize up fast when one driver loses control.
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