A professor at N.C. State died in a car collision earlier this week.
According to Lt. Everett Clendenin, spokesperson for N.C. Highway Patrol, Randy Rose, assistant professor of toxicology, died Tuesday afternoon in a four-car collision that occurred around 5:15 when his 1991 Honda was rear ended by another vehicle as he was waiting to turn into his subdivision.
Trooper Dwight Braswell of the N.C. Highway Patrol was an officer on scene at the accident. He said Rose’s car was forced across the line into oncoming traffic, pushing him into the path of another vehicle, a pick-up truck driven by Roscoe Avery, Jr. After Rose’s car was hit by the truck it spun around, running into the fourth car involved, a 1997 Pontiac. Rose wasn’t wearing a seat belt and was killed on impact, according to Braswell.
Geneva Cox, 49, was driving the SUV that struck Rose from behind; she sustained no injuries. She lives about a mile away from the site of the accident.
“Most fatalities happen within two miles of your residence,” Braswell said.
He said it took the police about 10 or 15 minutes to respond to the scene.
“When I got there the fire[department] and EMS were already there,” he said. “They had a much faster response time.”
According to Braswell, the accident occurred on Guy Road just inside of Johnston County. Out of the four vehicles involved in the accident only one other person aside from Rose was hurt; Avery was transported to Wake Medical Center with minor injuries.
According to a study done in 2004 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an average of 117 people die in car wrecks daily — one person every 12 minutes. Of the 42,636 people who die each year in vehicle related deaths, 1,557 of those people are North Carolinians.
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for ages 3 to 33, according to the same study, but other statistics from the NHTSA show seat belts are about 50 percent effective in preventing fatalities in crashes.
According to Ernest Hodgson, a professor emeritus of toxicology, Rose came to NCSU in 1988 as a post-doctoral member of the department. He became regular faculty around 1991.
Hodgson was the one who hired Rose, and they had worked together since he first arrived at the University.
“He was rather quiet, but a very devoted teacher and he related to the students very well,” Hodgson said.
According to Hodgson, Rose was responsible for one of the courses that all toxicology graduate students must take, a beginning course for the degree, and while many faculty members participated in it, he organized and taught the majority of the course himself.
Rose was 52 and leaves behind a wife and five children. Funeral arrangements have yet to be made.
